Britain Unprepared for U.F.O. Attack

Nick Pope headed the Ministry of Defense's U.F.O. program from 1991 to 1994. The program has since been disbanded, and Pope alleges that the government is not doing enough to investigate sightings.

"The consequences of getting this one wrong could be huge," he warned. "If you reported a U.F.O. sighting now, I am absolutely sure that you would just get back a standard letter telling you not to worry."

Pope said that when he began his job he did not believe in aliens, but access to top secret documents and the sightings he investigated led him to think otherwise.

He described the case of a large triangular-shaped craft witnessed by hundreds of people in two different locations in England in 1993. The craft reportedly made a low humming noise and fired a beam of light into the ground.

In another case in 1980, Pope claimed, staff at a Royal Airforce base in the east of England went to investigate bright lights coming from a wood. They discovered a "a kind of lunar landing module" which flew off. The craft left imprints in the ground that were found to have ten times more radiation than normal.

Pope believes that although there is no evidence that aliens have hostile intentions towards us, it can not be ruled out. He added:

"If you believe these things are extra-terrestrial craft then you cannot rule out that what is happening is some kind of covert reconnaissance."

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense told the press that all U.F.O. sightings are investigated for evidence of hostile or unauthorized activity in British air space.

Pope has written two science fiction novels, a book about his government work and a book on alien abductions. On his Web site he explains:

"I felt that when I left the job there was still a huge amount of work to do, and that the best way to take this forward was to raise the profile of the subject within the MOD [Ministry of Defense], the scientific community, the media and with the general public. I also felt more generally that people had a right to know about the work that had been going on."