My name's Nick Pope and I used to run the British Government's UFO project, Ask Me Anything

I'm best-known for a posting I held between 1991 and 1994, where my job was to investigate UFO sightings reported to the MoD, to see whether there was evidence of any potential threat, or anything of more general defense interest.

Hello and welcome.

I wondered, if amongst all the many pages of questions, you might be able to answer something, as a means of giving further insight into the actual machinations of Government UFO investigation.

I would like to ask about your investigation process;

a. Was there a specific procedure, presumably you didn't go out and talk to / see the places of all the reported 'incidents'?

b. Of those that you interviewed and physically investigated, presuming there were those type of investigations, did you ever find possible evidence of UFO, crafts, beings etc?

c. Were there any you felt were 'hushed' or taken out of your control by your superiors, or even brushed under the carpet or that you were deliberately misinformed about, as a means of undermining the information?

d. Did you feel that your position was the 'real deal' or that you were a 'face' for a position that was a 'front' for some bigger deal in the background, like Men in Black the movie?

Thank you in advance for reading this and for answering, if you do.

reply to post by PhoenixOD


Our brief was simply to investigate UFO sightings in the UKADR, as a defense/national security issue - we avoided a conclusion-led approach, so took no position on the true nature of the phenomenon. We went where the data led us.

I was a briefer and an analyst for most of my 21-year MoD career - only 3 years of which were spent on the UFO project. MoD might well have appointed a scientist or military officer (and at many points in the 50+ year history of MoD's UFO project there was a military officer leading this work), but I always had access to specialist scientific and military expertise and resources when I needed it.

I had a TS/SCI security clearance with various other codewords/caveats, but can't go into the specifics.

reply to post by NickPope


Hello Mr Pope.. I read your books years ago the first and second one "open skies closed minds"
and the other one which I forget.

I have just one thing to ask you ... I am sceptic with an open mind..
Do you have anything that makes you think(in your gut) that alien beings are visiting Earth?

I doubt they are! ..but would just like to know how you feel about it.

Really appreciate you coming here and thanks to the overlords for arranging it.

reply to post by NickPope


Thanks for the reply. You see a lot of people think that UFO automatically means aliens or flying saucers. When you say you were heading a project to investigate UFO's they think you are trying to track down alien space craft.

So the project you were heading was looking for UFO's in that you were investigating anything unidentified in our airspace for defense reasons.

Originally posted by NickPope
reply to post by Sk8ergrl

 

I can only speak from a position of authority in relation to the UK government, but from my direct involvement in this, I certainly wasn't aware of any alien involvement, or of any evidence to suggest that "the powers that be" were secretly controlling the government. And while the MoD consistently downplayed the true extent of its involvement and interest in the UFO phenomenon, I saw no evidence of outright lies.

Hello Mr. Pope, Thank you for answering my questions and I really appreciate your loyalty on this subject. I wish you well.

Hi Mr. Pope,

I was curious as to whether your research points to UFOs being interplanetary/intergalactic visitors, or does it moreso point to inter-dimensional visitors?

I've seen documents declassified by the FBI stating that they are inter-dimensional beings who have touched upon the technology to materialize in and out of our dimension.

Any thoughts?

Thanks for doing this btw!

reply to post by Trexter Ziam


I investigated around 200-300 UFO sightings each year. Approximately 80% had conventional explanations, i.e. misidentifications of ordinary objects/phenomena, while in around 15% of cases there was insufficient data to make a firm assessment. So we were left with around 5% of cases that we categorized as unexplained. However, as we were at pains to point out, "unexplained" does not equate to "alien spacecraft". Unexplained means unexplained - no more and no less.

Originally posted by Springer
For those who aren't aware, this is the "real" Nick Pope and he's here as our invited guest so please ask your questions and be respectful.

You can read about our new "Ask Me Anything" efforts here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Springer...

Thanks Springer. Am usually on ats out of boredom, but these 2 threads are gonna be
very timely and welcome.

BTW Mr Nick welcome and thanks in advance

Cheers

reply to post by benrl


With apologies, I'm going to have to decline the invitation to comment on NSA surveillance issues, the Snowden affair, etc.

reply to post by NickPope


Hi Nick

I live near Menwith Hill in Harrogate and have seen quite a few ufo craft on the road marked Hardisty Hill that runs not too far from the base.
Now this road leads to the B6265, which at one time, might still be, a ufo sighting hotspot.

My question is....does any silent military craft exist that can stay completely motionless for long periods of time, camouflage itself and then turn on a very large light that resembles a massive star ??
Circular in shape it can move both slow and then speed out of sight at speeds I've never seen before, changing directions in the blink of an eye.

I was lucky enough to see 3 of these at fairly close range one night up there. I just would love to know if they were actually ufo or maybe something to do with Menwith.
Menwith must have been aware of them because Menwith is aware of everything

Mmmm, been stopped a few times.

I have seen these craft on a few occasions, always on the same road, but the other sightings were much more distant.
Also, on the same road is a cemetery which is no normal cemetery. I just wondered if your work on the ufo project revealed any unusual info on this place ??
If it did...you will know exactly the place I'm talking about.
If not....forget I ever asked !!

Originally posted by NickPope
reply to post by Trexter Ziam

 

I investigated around 200-300 UFO sightings each year. Approximately 80% had conventional explanations, i.e. misidentifications of ordinary objects/phenomena, while in around 15% of cases there was insufficient data to make a firm assessment. So we were left with around 5% of cases that we categorized as unexplained. However, as we were at pains to point out, "unexplained" does not equate to "alien spacecraft". Unexplained means unexplained - no more and no less.

Mr. Pope, correct me if I'm wrong but it's sounding like the majority of your investigations were NOT found to be alien sightings, and with the minority, it sounds like you doubt they were alien craft.

I'm curious as to whether or not you're 100% convinced that we are being visited in the first place..?

Welcome to ATS Mr. Pope.

Hopefully this has not already been asked, but has there been any cooperation/joint UFO investigations between the British government and the US government?

In your opinion, if we do Find UFO's are "alien" in nature, and we make contact, are we going to regret it? Call this a "for fun" question, i won't hold you to your answer.

reply to post by Argyll


I never felt that I was being blocked in my investigations, or denied access to any information I felt I needed. But it's difficult - if not impossible - to prove a negative, and although the scenario is slightly different from what you asked, if something was being skilfully hidden from me, I don't know whether or not I would have noticed. A case of "unknown unknowns", perhaps.

reply to post by Lady_Tuatha


There's a detailed account of the Calvine incident and the 'missing' UFO photographs here, on my website:

www.nickpope.net...

reply to post by NickPope


Wow..what a thread, so many people with as many questions in one day.


Glad to see you here on ATS mr. Pope.

The way I understand it is that many governments are releasing their UFO documents but I have the impression that these governments are not releasing the "smoking gun" stuff. I mean there must have been militairy aircraft chasing UFO's with their on-board camera's and recording in-focus and clear images of UFO's. But unfortunately it is this kind of evidence and related documents which are not released.

Do you think that I am right with this assumption and if so, can this mean that these governments have made an agreement among themselves to keep this juicy stuff from the public domain.

Can it be that this more interesting "shocking" evidence will be released after world-wide disclosure by the United States of America?

Thank you for joining ATS..

Mr. Pope --

I, such as yourself, am not convinced of alien visitation, but also feel that it is not an impossibility. I'm open to the idea, but have not found a good reason to believe it yet...

But here is my version of the Fermi Paradox (sort of):

For sake of my argument, let's stipulate that alien visitation IS happening. If alien visitation of Earth was in fact occurring, then obviously the aliens would be able to clearly and positively indicate their presence to us, if they so desired (I mean, what would stop them?). Considering they have not clearly and positively indicated their presence (and again, for the sake of argument, let's assume they ARE visiting), I would assume that means the aliens are deliberately keeping their presence a secret.

Have you ever considered what hypothetical motives they would have for being so secretive? And if no valid reason exists for them being so secretive, and that if they WERE visiting, we would undoubtedly know about it (i.e., it would not be a secret), could that be an indication that alien visitation is not happening at all?

Thanks!

Mr. Pope,

Thank you very much for taking the time and being our guest. I would like to ask a few simple, pointed questions.

!) Why were you asked to get involved with the research/investigation in to the UFO phenomena while working for the Govnmnt?

2) Did you volunteer or were you asked?

3) Do you consider this on going research a passion or a means of additional income? (additional income is certainly not a bad thing in my opinion. If I could investigate this phenomenon and make a living, I certainly would do that.

4) Have you seen any reported ufo pics or video, online that you could identify?

5) Are you aware of any ainti-gravitical secret air craft that is owned by any governments?

Thank you

reply to post by FireMoon


I don't think I've seen the "Unsealed: Alien Files" episode on the 'Solway Spaceman', even though I have a sneaking suspicion I might have been interviewed for this. So I'm afraid I can't comment on the authenticity of whatever footage they may have used in relation to Blue Streak/Woomera.

Mr Pope

Thank you so much for giving of your time so graciously. Having had the honour of being on of the Live team that interviewed you I can only say that it is a great honour that you would participate in this chat.

For those foolish enough to have not seen the main thread on this I can assure Mr Pope is the genuine article and you are indeed in the presence of a world class expert.

My question isn't actually related to your UFO experiences - but rather to refer to your fiction work - can you see one of your books being made in to a film?