UK goverment to lift lid on UFO secrets

BBC News

Details of a mysterious "glowing" UFO seen close to an RAF base more than 20 years ago have been released under the Freedom of Information Act.
Restrictions on the Ministry of Defence's "Rendlesham File" were dropped as part of an opening-up of the inner workings of Whitehall

It is the UFO sighting contained in secret files that is most likely to spark the public's imagination.

The "Rendlesham File" concerns a sighting of a "glowing" triangular object by US Air Force police in Rendlesham Forest, near RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk, has only previously been made available to around 20 people who used the American Freedom of Information Act to gain access to it.

In the early hours of December 27, 1980 a number of US Air Force men witnessed the object hover in the darkness, transmitting blue pulsating lights and sending nearby farm animals into a "frenzy".

In a report entitled "Unexplained Lights", USAF Lt Col Charles I Halt, Deputy Base Commander at RAF Bentwaters, adjacent to Woodbridge, told how he witnessed an object emitting a "red sun-like light" moving through the trees.
_________

Cool

www.reuters.com...

Britain to Publish Files on UFO Sightings
Thu November 28, 2002

LONDON (Reuters) - The British government will publish files on reported UFO sightings as part of a shake-up of its laws on freedom of information.
Among the documents to be published is the "Rendlesham File," which deals with one of the country's best known sightings of an unidentified flying object.

Until now, only about 20 members of the public have seen the file, which relates to a sighting in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, eastern England, in 1980.

According to some UFO enthusiasts, eyewitnesses including U.S. officers at a nearby military base saw a brilliantly lit spaceship land in the forest on two consecutive nights.

Skeptics say the witnesses were fooled by the beam from a lighthouse on the nearby coast.

The Rendlesham file has been available to the public for some time but only at the discretion of the Ministry of Defense.

Now, the government says it will publish it on the Internet before the end of this week, along with other files on reported UFO sightings.

"These first steps mark important progress toward changing the culture of government and extending the public's right to know what is being done in their name," Freedom of Information Minister Yvette Cooper said in a statement.

The government says it intends to repeal or amend up to 100 pieces of legislation which currently prohibit disclosure of information. It aims to replace them with provisions of a new Freedom of Information Act, passed in 2000.

I wonder what that report will look like?!?!? Probably the typical black mark outs page with a few words which include "the" and "of" or maybe even "and" or possibly even defining "is"!!!

It's great news and it means a lot of official imfo coming soon.
I've seen an extract from the Rendlesham file in the Times today,no blacked out words.But even if there are it says a bit about what the gov are still trying to hide.

Originally posted by John bull 1
It's great news and it means a lot of official imfo coming soon.
I've seen an extract from the Rendlesham file in the Times today,no blacked out words.But even if there are it says a bit about what the gov are still trying to hide.

Can you tell us what it said?!?! Or does it just hint about the bov trying to cover something up?!?!
Good info?!?!

The piece in my newspaper has photos of the original documents.Unfortunately this does not so you'll have to trust me about no blacked out words.

www.timesonline.co.uk...

Over the next 3 years all documents relating to UFO's will be released.Sunday will be the first big release dayrelease.There will be an offical government website.

There do seem to be hints of cover up.For instance,during the Rendlesham incident unusually all radar was switched off.This right next to RAF Woodbridge.Seems dubious to me.

CNN

If you see that goverment web site, tell me!!!!!!

I've looked on a few goverment sites, but I can't see anything so far. I guess we just have to wait.


Loads in the papers though!

(Bet the Americans are p***ed off!)

Originally posted by The Director
I've looked on a few goverment sites, but I can't see anything so far. I guess we just have to wait.


Loads in the papers though!

(Bet the Americans are p***ed off!)

Maybe so but just how much of this will be released?!?! And how much will be disinformation?!?!? What ever is released..... will it be true?!?!

hmmmmmm...............

I expect that they'll release the info, fair and square, and it will have been some sort of research project or test vehicle.

And I expect that the ones who want to believe that the governments are in collusion with aliens will demand more information.

I don't believe there's any "alien involvement." Our technology hasn't done any strange leaps and bounds and things that I would have expected to see (microcomputers the size of the Palmpilot... only developed in 1950 instead of 1990) just didn't happen.

No ground breaking info coming out yet?!?!?


I tend to agree with Byrd on this one...... I can't see anything like Alien involvment coming out....... sigh.......

UFO case blocked by MoD

Details of one of Britain's most famous UFO scares was among information repeatedly suppressed by government defence chiefs, according to a Westminster watchdog.
Parliamentary Ombudsman Ann Abraham said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) broke open government rules three times in recent months over cases including the Rendlesham Forest UFO scare.

Details of the alleged sighting at an RAF base more than 20 years ago were released last week after the Ombudsman ruled the MoD were wrongly suppressing them.

The so-called 'Rendlesham File' details the sighting of a "glowing" triangular object by US Air Force police in Rendlesham Forest, near RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk.


Loads more at the link above.


Ooh, now we do have a cover up!

I'm checking every day for a government website in the UK press and I will post it on this thread when it is available.In the meantime this site is very interesting.It concerns The Rendlesham File.

216.239.39.100...:dxfAzU39B9QC:www.flyingsaucery.com/Rendlesham/files/The%2520Rendlesham%2520Files.doc+rendlesham+files&hl=en&ie=UT F-8

Good work, J-B (and how are the joys of fatherhood?).
To non-Brits, the thought of our government releasing anything about anything is pretty astounding: not that they're particularly villainous -just the English obsession with secrecy.
In fact, over the eyars, the MOD have allowed quite a few writers to look at the files and there is quite a bit already out there. The general consensus is that there were reports of sightings but nothing very persuasive and nothing that could not be explained away.
I'm guessing it will all be very tame and inconclusive stuff; but it will at least be documentation.

I just got a mail from blackvault telling me the have the files...

The files in question can be found at:

www.mod.uk...

There are 5 files, all in .PDF format.
They seem to be quite large and, to be honest, I have been unable,as yet, to 'open' them to view their contents. (it gets up to about 39% and then freezes)
I have tried to download the files but am told that 'Explorer' doesn't support the format.

I'm having trouble linking to that site.I'm assuming that you can get access to the same 5 files here:

www.rense.com...

Apparently the files are so huge you need a fast connection (I have one right now) and a lot of memory (got that, too)).

I'm reading through them... the logical thing would be to print them off, but that's gonna kill a bunch of trees. Will let you know what I discover.

Gotten through most of this so far... here's my notes and observations:

=================
The files aren't in chronological order.

The Colonel Halt report is released (copies of this same report make up about 1/20th the file). An immediate furor is started. People start asking questions of the MOD (note: the MOD does acknowledge getting the letter.) Halt's report shows up later, in much modified form. Someone's taken the original, retyped and added details. (note: the US Air Force doesn't have a copy of Halt's original report... it was destroyed (not all records are kept. Many are destroyed, including trivial memos. Important stuff is kept.))

The Ministry of Defense doesn't have any branch that studies UFOs (they keep saying this, too.) All they're concerned with is "does this object pose a threat to our defense?" They restate this about a gazillion times to various people. It makes no impression on any of them. They want to know "if there's physical evidence that something landed, why isn't the MOD concerned?"

A bazillion people have asked "hey, can I have info" to which the MOD replies "look... we don't study UFOs. The only thing we wanted to know was 'does it present a problem?' The answer was 'no.' Case closed." Standard form letter. This thing makes up about 1/10th of the total paperwork, I think.

UFO community ALWAYS equated "unidentifiable objects in the sky" with "alien spacecraft." There's a lot of "ufo-ologists." I adore the ones that are handwritten on lined schoolbook paper with a UFO xeroxed on the header. Yep. That makes you look like a serious reporter. Yepyep.

Parliment asked for explainations (several times.) They were told that there were about 1400 such sightings and that there's never been any radar anomalies (weirdly moving radar blips, etc) with any of the UFOs reported and investigated. They also get the explainations that the reason they don't release everything is that it's too hard to go through all the files and pull the info.

It's fascinating to see how this builds out of the Colonel Halt report to things like "engine compartment found" and other details that over the course of time "come out." This is highly suspicous... in the case of something known (like the Challenger explosion or the sinking of the Titanic) you don't get this much added detail years later. It also evolves into "the base commander went out and talked to the aliens."

The UFO community writes and publishes reports and there are documents addressed to departments that don't seem to exist in the USAF or the MOD.

At least one politician gets very grumpy and demands explainations. Alton gets raked over the coals. Someone finally (1985) notices the discrepancies in Halt's titles (Colonel Halt... at the time he was a Lt. Colonel)

Neatishead RAF base says that at the time of the UFO incident, their radar camera recorder was switched off (standard operating policy) and they have no data -- but examining the logs showed no unusual radar blips reported.

Bentwaters RAF base says the films they developed had problems (were faulty) but that logbooks show nothing unusual on radar.

They're contacted by a lot of writers who think highly of their own skills -- writers who can't spell and have only a basic knowledge of grammar.

About halfway down through the file, we see that hoaxes are already coming to light. In 1984, someone in the MOD writes a researcher and says "although apparently written on Ministry of Defence headed paper it is most certainly not an official document..." and "I have no idea where it came from or why it was written and I can only conclude that it is intended as a joke." The report about the "landing of a UFO crewed by several 'entities' near RAF Bentwaters in 1980" is also a hoax written on MOD headed stationery.

Years later, allegations of tapes/film/etc come out.

The most significant documents are those written by and to Mrs. P.J. Titchmarsh, at the Ministry of Defense, appearing in the 4th and 5th PDF files.

The first note is one from the Bentwaters RAF liason, saying here's the ads for the upcoming book SKY CRASH. They got most of the facts wrong, and there's likely to be a stir about this. More notes to members of Parliment saying "the radar records show NOTHING." RAF Squadron leader Moreland has quite a sense of humor about the letters... "They didn't teach me about the Sub-Dwarfs Solar System when I studied Astro-Navigation at Navigation school! (this in response to someone who claims to be in contact with aliens from... "a neighboring solar system in the vicinity of our own Sun")

[bold]The one official who DID investigate was Titchmarsh. She came into the scene a few years after, and started conducting some investigations. RAF Bentwaters says they know nothing other than what the Half letter said, and "I have no knowledge of any local constabulary involvement." She writes to someone who contacts the Suffolk constables and they say they were called to the Woodbridge UFO scene on December 26, 1980 and all they could see was the lighthouse. They were also called out to see the landing marks. SIGNIFICANT POINT: The constables dates (good records kept - Dec 26th) do not match what Halt said (Halt dates it as happening one day later (Dec 27th), and the researchers all focused on December 29th and 30th). (pdf4, page 124-126)


UFOPDF4 page 40, letter to Webster, head of DS8, from person who formerly held his position, which asks some hard questions including the one that 's beginning to occur to me: Did Half fake the report?[/bold]

He also indicates some "coverup" possibilities that seem very real in light of the conflict in the police report and Half's report: is Half having mental problems?

(for balance, someone else should also review these and make notes as I did):

====================
PDF4, pages 26&27:

Private memo, detailing some things: There was a fireball reported as a UFO on December 25, as the Russian Cosmos rocket reentered the atmosphere over Southern England. There couldn't have been a large spacecraft in the woods... the trees in the area are 75 feet high and 10 feet apart. The cops looked at the indentations and said "rabbits did it." (note: plausible -- animal behavior's different in different parts of the world and locals who hunted the woods would be more familiar with animal signs than foreigners would be.) If there was a UFO with pulsating lights in forest, observers should have seen TWO pulsating lights (the lighthouse being the second one).

More faked documents ("made up, like a Christmas menu") turn up. The House of Lords is amusing when it brawls ("the noble and gallant Lord")

Halt's report was not taken seriously. Halt was not told his career would be in jepordy if he talked. The report wasn't classified top secret. (PDF5, page 3-6). "...alleged interview with squad leader Moreland is also a fabrication." Moreland himself apparently denies that he said there was a ufo performing impossible feats. Info provided by "former security policeman" is completely untrue, as is report of alien beings. Ops checked, and only a civilian aircraft was reported. Titschmarsh says the MOD's closed-mouth answer (true, but nondetailed) caused more problems than it solved.

A rep from the Forestry Commission intervied (p7) says the burn marks are the way they indicate in the forest that the trees will be felled. He showed a reporter "landing indentations" and explained that they were from rabbits digging for roots. Gamekeepers said the bits about panicked cattle were ridiculous... "this is a forest." There's no cattle in forests.

At the time of the sighting, Half was offduty and offbase.

Titchmarsh continues to probe. Seems to do a thorough job. She writes the USAF about this, too. RAF commander Moreland (the one with the sense of humor) is the poor harrassed person who had to deal with queries from the UFO community.

UFO researchers want ALL reports released and housed at a university for study.

The file ends with the OMNI article ... which seems to have interviewed everyone with an opinion and a real or faked sighting.

=====================