The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) recently declassified some much hyped UFO documents, and deposited them at the National Archives Office, where anyone can peruse them. Well, please excuse me if I don’t jump up and down, screaming ‘yabba dabba doo’, like a latter-day Fred Flintstone who’s eaten too many artificial food colors. Don’t get me wrong – some of them are interesting enough to read, especially the ones pertinent to my own locality. But what do they actually tell us about the UFO phenomenon? Exactly diddly squat, that’s what. Oops. Please excuse that inadvertent and paltry rhyme.

What interests me about the release of these documents, is not their contents, but what may lie behind their release. I haven’t had a chance to read the full contents of the PDF versions of these documents yet. Each one is hundreds of pages long, and believe it or not - I have a life outside ufology! But the contents I’ve perused so far are a little disappointing. Maybe I was naively hoping for too much?

I can’t help but ask this question. Why would the MoD release this collection of documents now? Some people I’ve spoken with have come up with one of my most dreaded ufological bêtes noires – ‘it’s all part of a gradual system of disclosure’. No! Go away! All the majority of those documents tell us, is that a schoolboy in Skegness, a housewife in Hartlepool, or a butcher in Bolton, saw lights in the sky they couldn’t identify. Where’s the REAL information? Trying to get hold of that is like trying to get milk from a bull.

I’ve been asking ‘why?’ ever since I first heard the release of these files mooted. For some reason, I’ve always felt that the MoD found UFOs to be a proverbial pain in the butt. No, let me qualify that. I think the MoD finds public interest in UFOs a pain. I think that pain probably intensified in 2000, with the inception of the UK’s Freedom of Information Act. Ever since the MoD announced it was to release its UFO files, I’ve held the suspicion that the British government is trying to wash its hands of the whole UFO issue. At least, on a public basis, anyway.

I’m no expert on the MoD, but on January 20^th, 2008, I participated in a live podcast. I got the chance to put my theory to Nick Pope, ufologist and former MoD UFO desk front-man. Sadly, the phone lines were not working, so I conveyed my question to him via the show’s chat room. Nick Pope appears to share the same suspicion – that the MoD is seeking to wash its hands of UFOs. If anyone is interested, the podcast can be heard here.

So, if the MoD is resigning from its role as collator of British UFO reports, does this mean it really believes UFOs are of no significance, defense or otherwise? Is it simply trying to lighten its workload in difficult times, by offloading these reports, so it doesn’t have to respond to huge numbers of FOIA requests? Or, has it surrendered the whole UFO issue to another authority, one the public is ignorant of? And could the release of the files simply be a sweetener, to throw investigators off the trail? Sadly, we may never know.

Perhaps the declassified files really are the sum total of what the MoD knows. Or are we banging our heads up against some of the big catch 22s of ufology? Think about it. Those best placed to give us any answers, if such answers exist, are the ones least likely to give us anything. And because they’ve obfuscated and prevaricated for so long – just who is going to believe them - even if they really do have nothing to give us? As I said at the start of this post – please forgive me for not jumping with joy. The release of the MoD documents has not advanced my understanding of the UFO issue one meagre iota. It has, in my eyes, generated more questions than answers. As always, those answers are as rare as pixie-dust - and if occasionally found, just as misleading.