What would you ask the guy from the UFO department?

Tis the season to be jolly. Tis also apparently the season to completely mislead you with thread titles. Which is why this topic is actually about your favorite cheese. Only kidding.

As you know, a year ago, the MoD UFO department was closed, quite a monumental day in the world of UFO's especially for us here in the U of K.

MoD chiefs made the decision to close the £50,000 a year department, established in 1950, after deciding there was no benefit investigating sightings which were “an inappropriate use of defence resources”.

Source: Telegraph article

Despite the increasing number of sightings the department was shut, the employees passed on to the DWP and the office turned into a Men's toilet.

Skinner attended a meeting at which he told Mulder that word had come down from the top of the FBI's executive branch that both he and Scully would be reassigned to other sections of the Bureau, effectively shutting down the X-files.

However TPTB couldn't shut-down the operations of the entire team. One man was and will be forever part of the media coverage on these subjects as you are well aware.

My job was to collect raw data about RAF operations, and pick out the key things that senior personnel needed to know: details of any casualties and losses, targets attacked, battle damage assessment, etc. It was an interesting and very high-tempo job. It was while working there that I was approached and asked whether, after I was released from duties in the Joint Operations Centre, I would like to run the UFO project, which was embedded in another part of Secretariat(Air Staff). I accepted the invitation. So, in a sense, I was headhunted.

The policy is to investigate UFO sightings to see whether there's evidence of anything of any defence significance, i.e. evidence of any threat to the defence of the UK, or information that may be of use to us, scientifically or militarily. Having a UFO project in no way implies a corporate belief in extraterrestrial visitation. It simply reflects the fact that we keep a watchful eye on our airspace and want to know about anything operating in the United Kingdom's Air Defence Region.

My resignation became an international news story, but some of the media coverage of my departure was inaccurate. The MoD receives more Freedom of Information Act requests on UFOs than on any other subject, including the war in Iraq. That means my successors have little or no time for the research and investigation that took place in my day.

Source: Nick Pope FAQ

The world of UFO's never stops, even if the (then) most famous operational department of them all does. For a personal project I'm gathering questions for Mr Pope and would be glad to get some ideas from you. He has agreed to do it, a while ago - I've been too busy with another project but now I can focus on it some more.


^ An artists impression of what the M.O.D. UFO office may have looked like

I'm not looking to ask him questions you can find in his FAQ, but things that have happened recently, or from the past year, a little deeper than the usual questions. You must remember it's just for his opinions for you, and YouTube hits for me I won't be able to conduct the interview til the early months of next year but there will be a video interview that I'll share exclusively with the ATS ufo forum first, (you did after-all provide the questions).

Link: Video of MoD UFO dept closure: www.youtube.com...

Wild theories you want his opinion on, specific sightings from the past year and questions about the furnishings in his former office are all welcome. Also, do let me know if there are any specific people from the UFO community (on the whole) that you have some burning questions for, and I'll try and arrange some further video interviews through the year.

That aside, I'm just interested to know what you think are the major/burning issues in the UFO world right now.

So, what would you ask the guy from the UFO department?


PS. Please say which country you're from too, so I can say "David from Italy asks..." ! Thanks

reply to post by markymint


Marky , thats your office isnt it ?
In any case, my questions would be as follows. First, on an operational matter, how does any government office or agency investigate anything to a good standard of scientific and forensic depth on the £50,000 budget which was in effect before you came to office yourself? What is your current budget. And finaly , what right do the government have, to examine the evidence you yourself have found, before the citizens of the nation, the people actualy paying for the work to be done?
Answers on a post card Mr Pope, or your family gets it.

From TrueBrit (one would have to work far harder and longer than that to aquire anything approaching my name over the internet!)

Originally posted by markymint
So, what would you ask the guy from the UFO department?

1) When did the real UFO's stop visiting?

Me? I am from Dreamland

reply to post by markymint
It's true that the world of UFOs never stops; it goes round and round in circles like a dog chasing it's own tail.

I posted a thread a few months ago that highlighted how we're asking the same questions that people were asking in 1960 (!).. Nothing changes and we're circling the same old questions that have no answer available to us...

I'd ask how their family was doing or how their team was getting on. Anything but UFOs.

S&F for posting an interesting question and apologies for the Scroogey, negative response.

Great post! Nice sense of humor. Where will your podcast or article be published?

I'd ask him if his MoD project was basically a PR exercise, similar to Project Blue Book, while real reports were (allegedly) funneled off deeper into the black intelligence community, as explained by the sources on this thread.

edit: Sweden

After giving him a quid my question to nick would be:

Can you go and get me a coffee from the vending machine? White, no sugar.

Nick Pope is a waste of space who now makes his living by neither confirming nor denying ETs and alien craft. He never comes up with any kind of useful info. He's just a nodding talking head used by media companies when they need a pseudo expert.

Come on Pope get off the fence and put your money where your mouth is. We already know that this particular case is interesting, or that that particular case is fascinating, or that those cases are of concern regarding national defense bla bla bla. If he wasn't such a weedy wet blanket I'd be wondering whether he was still working as a dis-info wet blanket.

Theres no point asking Nick Pope anything as he doesn't know anything.

He's making a good living being a pundit and I wish him well, but for UFO answers you'd be as well directing questions to paul the psychic octopus (and he's dead).

reply to post by justwokeup


Agreed, as my post above yours states. Only it just took me a hell of a lot more words to say practically the same thing. Grrr...

It annoys me the way people put Pope on a pedestal.

They do the same thing with Professor Hawking who is so far away from being a genius that he should be sent back to school on the slow bus. There's practically nothing anyone can point to in regards of successful work and the furtherance of knowledge. He's nearly always wrong anyway....OH NOES I'm ranting about Hawking again!

Couple things that always wondered about that would ask.. 1. If they have worked out how to disclose to the world the existence of u.f.os without causing worldwide panic ?
2. Why is it that the majority of sightings always seem to be in western countries ?
As to my location .. Out in the jungle in s.e asia far from the madness of "civilisation".

reply to post by spookfish




Agreed, although I think putting pope and hawking in the same bracket is a tad harsh on hawking. :-)

It does perplex me why people who are recognised as good at something science related suddenly get ascribed knowledge about everything science related by the media.

Science is too deep now to have a single 'genius' icon you can wheel out for answers to everything. Its hard enough keeping abreast of one specialisation never mind them all. Stove-piping is probably one of the things holding us back (though thats another thread in itself).

It does perplex me why people who are recognised as good at something science related suddenly get ascribed knowledge about everything science related by the media.

Well that's certainly true for your hero Hawkins, isn't it? I mean, where did he suddenly get the energy to *monotone* bring you a show about a lee en life? They are strange blob things with snout like elephant noses on a derelict bryce 3d background nnv they may be a danger to us nnv oh no my battery is failing where is Duracell bunny when I need him zzzt*

Ths is less about what the person stands for and more for what they were a part of. Thanks for the nice projections so far

I would ask Nick Pope why common people know "much more" about the UFOs
than him and what game he is playing.

reply to post by markymint


Well yes. That was my point.

Steven Hawking is no more qualified to have an Alien Life TV show than you or I.

Dont remember saying he was a hero either? I simply meant that its a bit unfair to compare him to Nick Pope who's sole claim to fame is being a junior civil servant in the sprawling expanse of the MoD.

Why is it that Nick supposedly worked at a high level and for a number of years at the MOD. And yet when the files were released he seemed unfamiliar with every case. What was his actual job at the MOD for him to have no prior knowledge of any of the case files released.

reply to post by EnigmaAgent


Because he didn't work at a high level in the MoD. He was a SEO desk officer when he left which is equivalent to a C1 grade. Thats not a high powered post. Anything juicy would have been taken from him and dealt with elsewhere. UFOs were a small part of his job.

If theres anything really to be known about the subject in the corridors of UK power it will reside in the archives of the intelligence services.

Kevin from Australia asks

If we could just step beyond your official policy position for a moment, we all accept there are risks with the disclosure process and some of the truths are not be very appealing to the public. Do you accept that their are also risk by delaying disclosure?

Also, what do you think humanity's chances are in the greater galactic neighbourhood?

Originally posted by markymint

Despite the increasing number of sightings the department was shut, the employees passed on to the DWP and the office turned into a Men's toilet.

That's what they tell you.

You go into that men's toilet, enter the third cubicle from the left, lock the door and pull the flush lever three times then raise the seat to an angle of 45 degrees. Hold it there for thirty seconds before lowering it again and then the secret panel.... well, you'll see! I've already disclosed too much.