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This Ministry of Defence file, released through The National Archives and published by The Black Vault, holds the MOD's 2002 handling of Dr David Clarke's requests for UFO documents under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. It includes the MOD's 9 December 2002 reply, which covered reports from 1976, 1980, 1993 and 1996 and charged £260. It also contains internal emails and file requisitions, plus Foreign Office and United Nations papers from 1978 on Grenada's proposal for UFO research.
“Life”19 pages
BACKGROUND NOTE MOD interests in UFO investigation is solely to establish whether report have any bearing on defence. Investigations of individual reports over a number of years have produced no evidence that UFOs represent a threat to defence. As might be expected, simple explanations have been found for most UFO reports, the most common single source of sightings being air- craft or the ligh~or aircraft seen under unusual meteorological conditions. There is nothing to justify the expenditure of Defence funds on setting up a section to investigate the reports. 2. We sometimes take the line: 'The :r;roD does not dismiss the possibility that intelligent life could exist in outer space, but reports that have reached the Department to date contain no ~vidence to support the view that these alleged phenoThena are of an extra-terrestrial origin'. However, that response is more likely toi~tate the dedicated enthusiasts than to convince them, so it is customary to p1ay a dead bat. 3. During 1976, the statement said to have been made by the French ~linister of Defence in 1974 was brought to the Department's notice in correspondence from the public. Attempts by DPR(R.U')- to verify the state~ent through the ~·ench Embassy were unsuccessful, since it was virtually impossible to check back on a radio programme broadcast two years earlier. Neither -v;as the British .A.ir Attache's staff in Paris able to produce information on the broadcast. It is understood, ho"'rever, that the French Defence Ninistry also study the ~alitary implications and consider any scientific aspect that may have a bearing on military affajrs. The reports are also con- sidered by French scientists at a Government organisation knO\m as the Centre Nationale D'Etude 'spatial. The British Air Attache in
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 492 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.