As the UK Ministry of Defence announced plans to disclose what appears to be the final trove of files related to their investigations of UFO activity, a former MoD employee named Nick Pope warned that “the whole thing is in danger of becoming a Whitehall farce”, Metro reports.
Pope, a freelance journalist who used to work for the MoD in the 1990s and whose responsibilities back then included investigating UFO phenomena, noted that this won’t be the first time the MoD has published the “final” cache of the X-files.
"The first time was in June 2013, when a project to declassify and release the entire archive of UFO files was – supposedly – completed. It had taken five years, involved 209 files and around 60,000 pages of documentation", Pope explained. "Then, embarrassingly, a further 18 files were located, which had supposedly been missed the first time around. The last of these were released in April 2019".
He warned, however, that people shouldn’t be particularly excited about the upcoming release as the files in question are unlikely to contain some bombshell revelations, describing them as "essentially public correspondence".
"This may include sighting reports from people who weren’t aware that the MoD axed its UFO project at the end of 2009. It may also include Freedom of Information Act requests sent to the MoD, along with the MoD responses. The files will be interesting, of course, but people shouldn’t expect a smoking gun – sadly, there isn’t one", Pope explained.
The journalist also noted that the ministry revealing additional files long after the UFO investigation program was apparently shut down helps fuel speculation about the project’s alleged continued existence.
