Monday 23 November 2020

Secret UFO probes 'hidden from UK Government' as military 'didn't trust' them

Dr David Clarke said the Ministry of Defence team tasked with hunting ETs "didn't trust" civil servants

By Berny Torre

The Ministry of Defence's secret ET hunters "didn't trust" civil servants with their information, claims Dr David Clarke who uncovered the Defence Intelligence Staff's study in 2005

Britain's secret UFO investigators kept their findings hidden from the Government, an academic has claimed.

Dr David Clarke, of Sheffield Hallam University, said the Ministry of Defence team tasked with hunting ETs "didn't trust" civil servants briefing ministers with their data.

The lecturer and investigative journalist uncovered the Defence Intelligence Staff's 400-page study into 10,000 UFO sightings in 2005.

He has now said its military officials often kept their findings secret from civil servants over fears the information would be leaked.

Dr Clarke added former Government UFO investigators who have gone public over the findings such as Nick Pope "didn't investigate anything".

He told the UFO Podcast with Martin Willis: "There was a UFO desk where he was an incumbent for three years but he was just one of dozens of different people who did that task and he didn't actually investigate anything.

"He just received reports and filed them. He was a civil servant, there was a body that investigated cases and it was known as the Defence Intelligence Staff, DI55, and they were the people who were tasked to investigate UFO incidents that were deemed to have some kind of military significance."

The UFO investigator added: "The system was extremely complicated and there was at various times two or three different departments of the British Ministry of Defence who were involved in investigating UFOs or responding to the public.

"He might run a few checks with a local radar station but that's as far as time allowed.

"If there was anything deemed to be of potential military significance or something that needed further investigation it was passed to DI55 to do the investigation.

"I've interviewed most of the people who worked on this subject in DI55 at that time and they tell me, 'well Nick Pope didn't have any involvement in this, we did the investigations, we didn't share information with them because we didn't trust them'.

"He was a civilian who was briefing ministers, he was doing PR work and during that time in that job he thought, 'well I could make a living from this'."

Officials at the Defence Intelligence Staff investigated some 10,000 potential ET sightings in the UK from 1997 to 2000.

It concluded that UFOs had an “indisputable” observable presence but there was no evidence to suggest they were "hostile or under any type of control".

NEAR MISS UFO almost collides with passenger jet as pilots approach UK airport

The UFO encounter occurred as the jet prepared to land at Leeds Bradford airportCredit: Alamy

By Isaac Crowson

A UFO came within seconds of colliding with a passenger jet in a terrifying close call.

The rogue object came at the packed Boeing 737 plane “almost head on” as pilots prepared to land at Leeds Bradford airport.

The scare on September 1 was rated a 'Category A' event by the UK Airprox Board - which monitors and investigates near-miss events.

The unidentifiable object - which could have been a drone or lantern - was just 10 feet away from the flight arriving from Spain.

The Airprox report revealed: “Both pilots suddenly saw a bright light and an object which appeared to be moving toward the aircraft, almost head on, slightly up and to the left.

“The object appeared without warning and there was no time to act."

After landing, the pilots were told that a police helicopter had seen lanterns flying in the area.

But the report added: "Neither of the pilots believed what they saw was a lantern.”

Investigators ruled that “a definite risk of collision had existed”.

The near miss came three days before a drone came three feet away from striking an Easyjet flight which had taken off from Manchester Airport.

The Airbus A320, carrying 186 passengers, was 8,000ft over Greater Manchester. The drone was flying 20 times above the legal height.

Pilots have reported fears of drones getting close to passenger jets.

There have been more than 400 incidents in the past five years.

Former Sen. Harry Reid on Biden, climate and UFOs

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), seen here at a 2019 event in Las Vegas, is optimistic about what President-elect Joe Biden can do about climate change. Carlo Allegri/Reuters/Newscom

By Maxine Joselow

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has kept busy since leaving Washington.

The Nevada Democrat has had a flurry of phone calls and text messages with aides to President-elect Joe Biden in recent days, recommending picks for Cabinet positions and offering advice from his three decades in Congress.

The 80-year-old has also stayed active in Nevada politics, setting up a successful political operation that has shaded the Silver State blue.

A climate hawk, Reid has at times angered Republicans and delighted environmental groups with his fierce criticism of the fossil fuel industry and the Koch family.

"We've got to get rid of fossil fuels as fast as we can. We've done a pretty good job of lessening our demand for coal," he said in a recent interview.

While serving as Senate majority leader from 2007 to 2015, Reid notched a number of controversial achievements, including passage of the Affordable Care Act and elimination of the filibuster for executive branch nominations and federal judicial appointments.

Since retiring in 2017, Reid has battled pancreatic cancer. It is now in remission, but he uses a walker to get around.

The political mastermind spoke on the phone with E&E News last week about how Biden can tackle climate change without the Senate, whether the filibuster will survive and why he believes in UFOs.

What have you been up to since leaving Congress?

Well, I've had a few health issues. But my health has been pretty good over the last year and a half, which has given me the opportunity to become more involved.

I try to maintain contact with my former colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans. I've got a call in an hour or so with one of my Republican senator friends. But I try not to interfere too much. I don't want them to think I'm trying to run the government from here.

Of course, I'm also heavily involved in Nevada politics with my program that I developed over the years. I have five children, four of whom live here in Nevada very close to me. So I keep pretty busy and am pretty content with my existence.

Have you spoken with members of President-elect Joe Biden's transition?

Yes. I've talked to [incoming counselor to the president] Steve Ricchetti several times. I've texted with [incoming chief of staff to Biden] Ron Klain. And I'm going to talk to [longtime Biden aide and former senator from Delaware] Ted Kaufman soon.

What have those conversations been like?

They've been good. They're all my friends, so it's easy.

Have you offered any advice for the transition?

Yeah, of course I have. But as far as what I've talked about, that would probably be the end of all my calls if I shared that. [Laughs]

What could Biden accomplish on climate policy if the Senate remains in Republican hands after the runoff elections in Georgia in January?

Of course we're going to wait until Jan. 5 to make that summation. But I think the climate crisis is such an issue that it cannot be ignored anymore. It is an issue that is already affecting migration around the world.

We have talked about it for years and frankly done almost nothing. That cannot continue. So regardless of whether President-elect Biden when he becomes president has a Republican majority or a Democratic majority or it's a tie, it cannot be ignored.

And one of Joe Biden's great attributes is he is a deal-maker. A lot of people who've been legislators even for a long time tend to forget what legislation is about. It's simply about the art of compromise. That's all it is. And Joe has been very good at understanding that. He spent those decades in the Senate as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

What are some of the first actions that Biden should take on climate change?

On day one he should rejoin the Paris climate accord. He should rejoin the World Health Organization. And he needs to look at all the executive orders that Trump executed that were detrimental to the environment.

As to what should happen with energy, Trump was very, very bad about renewable energy, which is something we have to focus on. So there are many, many things that Joe Biden can do as president in the first few days just with executive orders.

You've been a vocal critic of fossil fuels in the past. Why is that?

We've got to get rid of fossil fuels as fast as we can. We've done a pretty good job of lessening our demand for coal, but as we speak, China is building a number of brand new coal-fired generating [stations].

So we've got to get rid of coal and do anything we can to get rid of even natural gas, which is so much better than the normal fuel that we've used in the past. Other countries may not do it, but it's to their detriment.

You served in the Senate with Biden, and then you were Senate majority leader when he was vice president under President Obama. What was it like working with him?

Obama depended on Joe Biden to come to the Hill and try to work things out. And during the time that I was the leader and responsible for trying to execute Obama's policies, there were often times when I needed Joe Biden to help me. And he helped me on a number of occasions, one of which was during the long time I spent on the Affordable Care Act.

Do you have thoughts on who Biden should pick to lead federal agencies focused on energy and the environment, such as EPA, the Interior Department and the Department of Energy?

Yes. Even before the election was over, I'd spoken to Ricchetti on a number of occasions about some ideas I had.

Are you willing to share any of those ideas?

Well, there have been many articles written about names that are out there, and they're good names. For [the Interior Department], they're talking about [Democratic Sens.] Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall of New Mexico. So he's got a wide variety of people who would be excellent that have obviously been considered 'cause there have been articles about them the last few days.

Do you think Biden should avoid progressive nominees who might not get confirmed by a GOP-controlled Senate run by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell [R-Ky.]?

I think Joe Biden should select the best people that he can, the best qualified. If Republicans reject them on a partisan basis, it's a pox on their house, not on Joe Biden.

Do you think the filibuster will survive in the next Congress? And should it survive?

Well, I've been very public about that in saying that it's not a question if the filibuster's going to be done away with. It's just a question of when.

Now with the Senate going to be so evenly divided, it may not happen this Congress. But it's going to happen because you cannot have a democratic body that requires 60 votes.

It used to be that there was a lot of collegiality in the Senate and so it wasn't used very much. But McConnell has used it for everything. And as you know, I previously moved to change the rules for judges and Cabinet appointments but left a supermajority for Supreme Court justices, and the Republicans got rid of that, too.

Based on your experience of Yucca Mountain in Nevada, what do you see as the future of nuclear waste disposal in this country?

I think what we've learned over the years is that the best thing to do with nuclear waste is to place it where it is. Don't transport it. Put it in dry cask storage containers. You can bury it in the ground or leave it above the ground because the dry cask storage containers that we've developed are extremely safe.

You were featured in the recent documentary "The Phenomenon," in which you said the U.S. government has been hiding evidence of possible UFO encounters for years. Why do you believe that?

Well, I've been on the forefront of this for a long time. I obtained $22 million in taxpayer dollars to study these aerial phenomena through the [Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]. And that was extremely helpful in trying to understand what's going on.

Do we have all the answers? Absolutely not. But at least we know that thousands of people have reported these unusual occurrences over the decades. And as I have said, we cannot ignore what's going on. Russia, China and France are all working on this. And I hope that we will pick up the ball and continue to work on this.

I'm happy that the Pentagon now allows its pilots to report these unusual occurrences. In the past, pilots have been afraid to acknowledge them because it could hurt their promotions. So I think the federal government is doing better at recognizing it's something we have to stay on top of. And we have better cameras now with the aircraft, and we've got pictures we didn't have before.

Aztec is home to another purported alien crash-landing site within NM

An alien head rock formation marks the alleged spot of the Aztec UFO crash. (Courtesy of Susanne Pence)

By Toby Smith

Aztec, New Mexico, with a population of about 6,500, is a tidy community a few miles east of Farmington.

The nearby Aztec Ruins National Monument stands monumentally still. The Aztec Museum and Pioneer Village features such century-ago items as a historic barbershop, antique telephone equipment, various fossils and minerals.

Something else, something much darker, draws tourists to here.

On the night of March 25, 1948, a flying saucer allegedly crash-landed on a lonely mesa in Hart Canyon, four miles distant. There’s a plaque where it put down.

Folks as far away as those who lived in Cedar Hill, 10 miles northeast of Aztec, were said to have heard the crash. But that fact was never verified.

A plaque marks the spot where a flying saucer allegedly crash-landed near Aztec in 1948. (Courtesy of Susanne Pence)

In Farmington, hundreds reported the incident to the Farmington Daily Times. A state policeman debunked by saying the flying saucer was fluff from cottonwood trees. The Aztec tale was suddenly full of holes and hoaxes.

Here’s what came later. Two con men convinced Aztec residents that a saucer had definitely dropped in. That was a fraud, of course.

Nonetheless, Aztec swiftly became a favored spot for sky-watchers and believers from every which way.

A year earlier, in Roswell, in July 1947, a balloon fell smacked into the ground on a nearby ranch. Immediately conspiracy theories took hold as were extra-terrestrials.

As the years went by, Roswell became the king of all those who peered at the heavens thinking they had seen something important.

A 1996 UFO festival, brought Roswell mobs of visitors. A museum and research center dominated Roswell’s Main Street. Ufology turned into a serious subject. Books on the topic suddenly popped up everywhere.

Meanwhile, little Aztec became just a footnote.

A trail sign gives a nod to the alleged UFO crash near Aztec.(Courtesy of Susanne Pence)

And yet supposedly 12 giant humanoids were aboard that UFO. Perhaps 18, maybe 30. The saucer itself was said to be an incredible 100 feet in diameter. Members of the armed forces were ordered to store various pieces of debris and send them to such locales as Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, never to be seen again.

Frank Thayer, an emeritus professor at New Mexico State University, traveled to Aztec to see what the hubbub was all about.

“The military must have used the biggest Bekins truck available to cart away all that stuff,” he told me.

Beginning in 1997, a UFO symposium was held in Aztec. That conference lasted until 2011.

Papers were submitted on such subjects as alien abductions, cattle mutilations and government cover-ups.

Meanwhile, Roswell was experiencing an economic boom. Thus, Aztec became thought of as Roswell’s little brother.

How does one find the Aztec site?

The Visitor’s Center in Aztec is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the phone, I talked to Wilann Thomas, who ran the center.

I asked her what she believed. Her answer: “All those researchers who were here? They’re all graveyard-dead now.”

Seth Finch, a Presbyterian minister in Albuquerque, grew up in Aztec. He and some college friends took a road trip to where Seth was certain the site was located. “It was getting late, so I don’t know if we were near the actual site. It’s a wild place. There’s no signage at all. We went mountain-biking instead.”

In mid-October, my wife and I met up with another couple from Albuquerque and drove along a gritty, gravel road in Aztec for 6.5 miles. Not a single building could be seen, save for oil and gas operations.

I waved to the driver of a pickup truck to stop. “Do you know where that UFO trail is?” I asked.

He shook his head and said, “I been livin’ here 70 years and don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”

I thanked him, and onward we went. We hiked up past fallen cedar branches, and down rocky paths. After four hours of looking, we came to a clearing. There stood the celebrated plaque that had been installed in 2007.

It is certainly not a wall plaque. Rather, it appeared to be a lectern, the sort you might see in a college classroom. A few feet away lay a curious circle of rocks. Were those rocks put there by aliens? I wondered.

Nah, probably not.