Intelligence officers and UFO reports

Dear readers

Today's post arises from an interesting article in the March 2012 issue of the English Fortean Times magazine (issue 284 pp390-31.)

Researchers David Clarke and Andy Roberts, in an article titled "On the Saucer Beat" explore the issue of official UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) investigations into U.K. UFO reports.

They quote the head of S4(Air) MOD, John Peduzie, speaking of the MOD's specialist intelligence branches, "[These] branches have their own methods - and [the UFO desk] has 'no need to know' about them - but we are aware that DI55 ( click here for more) sometimes makes extensive enquiries." Clarke and Roberts go on to say that  "It's no surprise then, that most of the intelligence files on UFO investigations were destroyed long before the arrival of Freedom of Information."

A number of papers survived and were located in the Archives, which showed "...that, on some occasions, intelligence officers were sent out to conduct field investigations." (Click here for my previous post on UFOs and British Intelligence agencies.)

The authors cite a UK March 1966 instance, where a Police Constable, Colin Perks, reported an object hovering over shops at Wilmslow. "...the MOD...sent a Defence Intelligence Officer from London to interview Perks, and to visit the scene.

MIB?

Roberts and Clarke note that "It is possible - indeed likely - that some of these visits were responsible for rumours about the activities of the sinister 'Men in Black.'"

In another case, Police Constable Martyn Johnson was out walking with his girlfriend, when they both saw two colourful lights moving slowly, soundlessly, close to the ground. Then the two lights became four, and vanished at speed. The PC was told to attend his boss' office, where he found two other men present.

"...they were dressed just like the spies on TV, in trench-coats and trilby hats...He was reassured when his boss told him he wasn't in trouble and that the two men were 'members of a government investigation department in London..." The men questioned the PC about the UFO sighting. The next day they accompanied him to the location of the event.

The PC ran into them again later, and they told him "What you have seen is an unidentified flying object or UFO. Some people call them spaceships and if the people of the world knew how many genuine sightings there were like yours, they would panic."

Clarke and Roberts found PC Johnson's report on a file and note "All the reports on this file were copied to the RAF Strike Command and to DI55."

Australian and New Zealand intelligence agencies:

I have previously written about the involvement of Australian and New Zealand intelligence agencies and UFOs (click  here.)