Open Skies, Closed Minds: Official Reactions to the UFO Phenomenon

by Nick Pope

An overview of the UFO mystery, written by the man who used to run the British Government's UFO project. This is a true insider's account of the phenomenon, and lifts the lid not just on classic cases like Roswell and the Rendlesham Forest incident, but on less well known cases too. This groundbreaking and highly controversial book highlights cases from the US, the UK, and the rest of the world, with Nick drawing on his firsthand government experience to reveal what the authorities really know and think about UFOs, alien abductions, crop circles and animal mutilations. Open Skies Closed Minds was featured on Newsnight, serialized in the Daily Mail and reached number three in the hardback non-fiction list, staying in the top ten for ten weeks.

Genres: Nonfiction, Paranormal, Science

Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Nick Pope used to run the British Government's UFO project. From 1991 to 1994 he researched and investigated UFOs, alien abductions, crop circles and other strange phenomena, leading the media to call him the real Fox Mulder. His government background and his level-headed views have made him the media, film and TV industry's go-to guy when it comes to UFOs, the unexplained and conspiracy theories.

As the world's leading expert on UFOs, Nick Pope has consulted on, and helped to promote a number of alien-themed movies, TV shows and video games. He has presented, consulted on and contributed to numerous TV shows, has written five best-selling books, and lectures all around the world.

Nick Pope lives in America.

Reviews

[Elizabeth Grieve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly interesting, but there was not much I hadn't heard of before. However the author's background gives him a little more gravity when discussing UFO sightings, and it was interesting to learn that while many of the reports he examined during his career can be rationally explained, there is a small number that defy logical explanation.

Thanks to the publisher for an advance digital copy.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Back in the 1950s, Air Minister George Ward, in his statements to Members of the House of Commons, often explained away UFO sightings as 'balloons' – particularly those reported by Royal Air Force pilots. But in 1954, when he was challenged about this by his friend Desmond Leslie, a second cousin to Sir Winston Churchill and a former Second World War fighter pilot, Ward revealed several reasons why he felt obliged to publically 'explain' these reports. One of these was fear of ridicule. 'What am I to say?' said Ward. 'I know it wasn't a balloon. You know it wasn't a balloon. But until I've got a saucer on the ground in Hyde Park and can charge the public sixpence a go to enter, it must be balloons, otherwise the government would fall and I'd lose my job.”

“Thousands of pages of documents released in many countries – particularly in the United States under provisions of the Freedom of Information Act – reveal quite unequivocally that UFOs have been the subject of intensive investigations by the military and scientific intelligence communities since the 1940s. It is also revealing that in the USA (with the exception of the air force), many agencies long denied any serious involvement, until a flood of released documents proved to the contrary. Furthermore, agencies such as the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the intelligence branches of the air force, army and navy, admit that many Top Secret documents are still being withheld in the interests of national security”

“Following the extraordinary incursions into Belgian airspace in 1989/1990 of large, usually triangular-shaped flying craft, observed by over 2,500 witnesses – including several air force F-16 pilots and numerous police officers – Major General Wilfried De Brouwer, Deputy Chief of the Royal Belgian Air Force, commented: 'The day will come undoubtedly when the phenomenon will be observed with technological means of detection and collection that won't leave a single doubt about its origin. This should lift a part of the veil that has covered the [UFO] mystery for a long time; a mystery that continues to the present. But it exists, it is real, and that in itself is an important conclusion.”

All above quotes are by Timothy Good

“As an official with the Ministry of Defence, I have been able to talk directly to those who have themselves witnessed such phenomena. I have met many key figures in the UFO lobby and had unprecedented access to the raw data on the subject – the files which some lobbyists will tell you the government is anxious to suppress – and other resources not available to civilians. I have also talked to radar experts, astronomers, military pilots and a whole army of civil and military specialists, people to whom civilian UFO researchers are not necessarily denied access, but of whom they are not always aware.”
Nick Pope

“What is the likely truth behind so many stories of alien abduction? It is inconceivable that everyone is lying. Surely, most people seeking to paint themselves into a fantasy would concoct some benevolent contact, rather than what is almost always an unpleasant and frightening experience. The obvious attractions of fame and fortune may well have induced a few, but the majority of abductees are not seeking to sell their stories; neither do they crave publicity. In fact, a high proportion of them insist that there be no publicity surrounding their case.”

“The Freedom of Information Act has secured the release of various papers (although many files are – like the time of the abductees – curiously missing).
One paper that has surfaced is signed by Edward Tauss, Acting Chief of the Weapons and Equipment Division of the Office of Scientific Intelligence, dated August 1952: 'It is strongly urged, however, that no indication of CIA interest or concern reach the press or public, in view of their probably alarmist tendencies to accept such interest as "confirmatory".'
A cover-up of some sort appears to have been going on for some time.”

“Lord Hill-Norton, Admiral of the Fleet and Chief of the Defence Staff between 1971 and 1973, remains a steadfast believer in the potential threat of the UFO. A member of the House of Lords All-Party UFO Study Group set up in 1979, Hill-Norton continues to pressurise officialdom on the need for vigilance. Another stalwart was Ralph Noyes, who had been private secretary to Sir Ralph Cochrane, Vice-Chief of the Air Staff from 1950 to 1952 and head of the old DS8. He retired in 1977 as an under-secretary of state and is currently a leading authority on UFOs – he is also a consultant to BUFORA – crop circles and other psychic phenomena. Such distinguished company was light years away from my preconceptions of the UFO lobby. I had fondly imagined them as eccentrics in anoraks, train-spotter types standing on ley-lines at night, staring expectantly up at the heavens, binoculars at the ready. Yet here were senior civil servants and military officers convinced that UFOs were very real. My view of the subject began to change.”

“The biggest problem, then, lies in what the figures do not say. Are the 8,890 sightings since 1959 merely the tip of the iceberg? Here, I am on surer ground. The UFO lobby, who have followed this matter more closely than any other organisation over the last few years, believe that approximately 95 per cent of all UFO sightings are never reported at all. The estimates suggest that 13 million people worldwide have seen UFOs. Why do they not come forward?
One reason is that they are unsure of who to report them to. (…) “Even when people do pluck up the courage to come forward, it is difficult to see the whole picture because there is no central depository for such reports. (…) “reports lie all over the country, scattered, dissociated from one another and ultimately forgotten.
Another major factor is the fear of ridicule.”

“So what sort of people do submit UFO reports? Who are this vocal minority who are prepared to stand up and be counted? They come from all walks of life, both sexes, all ages. Most of them – and this is what made their stories so convincing for me – came forward tentatively, embarrassed, and sorry for taking up my time.”

“I formed the view that UFOs were potentially the most important issue currently facing the human race, and that the military would be in the front line if I was right.”

“There are three establishment figures, however, who have been prepared to bear the sniggers and whispers and for that they should be applauded. The first is Major Sir Patrick Wall, who took an active interest in the Rendlesham Forest case of 1980. Sir Patrick, who was Conservative MP for Humberside, spent more than thirty years in the Commons pushing the cause of serious UFO research at every conceivable opportunity. He pressurised the Ministry of Defence and, as a consultant to NATO at the height of the Cold War, was directly and closely involved in matters of national security. Sir Patrick's interest in the subject has not waned. In 1989 he became the president of BUFORA and is an internationally known expert on the UFO phenomenon.
Another politician connected with the debate was the late Brinsley Le Poer Trench, Earl of Clancarty. A UFO researcher and author, Lord Clancarty was involved at various times with two leading UFO organisations, Contact International and BUFORA. “Lord Hill-Norton, former chief of the defence staff, has already been mentioned and his vociferous comments carry a great deal of weight.”

“Much is made of UFO sightings backed by radar evidence, because radar is one of those safe, understandable technologies we have come to trust. (…) “In fact, as with everything else, no radar system is infallible and there are examples of returns that do not correlate with reality. (…) “A surprisingly large number of angels are picked up all the time by radar systems all over the world. In America, they are called 'uncorrelated targets'. If they do not satisfy the conditions of an aircraft or missile trajectory, they are merely written off as a glitch in the system. (…) “I had a personal experience that illustrates how common it is for 'experts' to think only in terms of familiar parameters. I was talking about radar sightings of UFOs to a military officer who told me that radar operators often picked up objects travelling in a straight line at speeds of several thousand miles an hour. These were automatically classed as meteorites. The officer had asked why this assumption was made. The official answer? 'Because they travel so fast.”

“Easily the most interesting file from the historical perspective is PREM 11/855, which is reproduced in its entirety in Appendix 7. By 1952, Winston Churchill had had a long and extraordinary career. The failed scholar, indifferent soldier and over-the-top writer had moved on to a rollercoaster political career, but by this time in his life he was unassailable, indisputably the 'grand old man' of the twentieth century who had already enjoyed his finest hour. 'What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to?' he asked the Air Ministry. 'What can it mean? What is the truth? Let me have a report at your convenience.' Churchill's words ring down the generations still. 'What can it mean? What is the truth?'
The rather aloof reply from the Air Ministry refers to an intelligence study carried out in 1951. Although there are no other references to this, its conclusions are set out in the reply to Churchill and do not differ widely from the sort of explanation I was giving to people while at the UFO desk. 'Known astronomical or meteorological phenomena' (meteors and meteorites, but not then, of course, space debris); 'mistaken identification of conventional aircraft, balloons, birds etc.'; 'optical illusions' (e.g., cloud formations); 'psychological delusions' (which we might, forty years on, be more inclined to be charitable about) and 'deliberate hoaxes'. What is interesting is the reference to the Americans having carried out similar investigations in 1948–9 (very shortly after Arnold's famous sighting) and having reached similar conclusions. (…) “The problem with this was that the American authorities had not reached similar conclusions. A 1952 CIA memorandum reported that since 1947 the Air Technical Intelligence Center had received 1500 UFO reports, 20 per cent of which remained unexplained.”

“Perhaps the most famous example of the controversy generated by the possibility of forgeries is the series of documents known as Majestic-12. We are still nowhere near understanding what actually happened at Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, but the consensus remains that the American government was guilty of a colossal cover-up.
The investigative committee allegedly set up by Truman to report to him personally consisted of twelve senior officials who gave the project its name, Majestic-12. They were Dr Vannevar Bush, head of the Office of Scientific Research, which had recently developed the atomic bomb; Rear Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, a former director of the CIA; Lloyd Berkner, former secretary of the Joint Research and Development Board; Dr Detlev Bronk, a prominent scientist; James Forrestal, former Secretary of Defense; Gordon Gray, Truman's special assistant; Dr Jerome Hunsaker, head of the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Dr Donald Menzel, an astronomer who was the foremost debunker of UFOs of his generation; General Robert Montague, commander of the Sandia military base at Albuquerque; Rear-Admiral Sidney Souers, secretary to the National Security Council; General Nathan Twining, commander of the Wright-Patterson Air Force “Base and General Hoyt Vandenberg, director of Central Intelligence. As all these men are now dead, we have to rely solely on the surviving documentation they were alleged to have produced. It is by no means certain that these twelve were ever involved in such an organisation or indeed that the organisation itself ever existed.”

USSR

“One new source of valuable information has opened up in recent years. With the Soviet Union's last – benevolent – dictator, Mikhail Gorbachev, came perestroika, glasnost and ultimately the collapse of the union in 1990. (…) “In Moscow, a state-funded organisation is now researching into new propulsion systems based on UFO reports under the directorship of open-minded scientist Dr Anatoly Akimov.
General-Major Boris Suriokov told the Network First documentary team in 1994 that while he was flying Soviet bombers during the Second World War, his plane encountered an object that electrically charged it. Fearing an explosion, he ordered his bomber to jettison the bombs and reported the mission as a success for fear of reprisals. He drew the object for the cameras and compared it with 'a miniature sunset', but flying at great speed. (…) “More recently, on 20 September 1977, over 170 guards and other military personnel at Petrozavodsk on the Finnish border saw a large object glowing in the sky at four o'clock in the morning. It was observed for a total of four hours, for fifteen minutes of which it appeared to rain down beams of light, before moving in the direction of Finland.”

CONCLUSION

“It is certainly unusual for the Ministry of Defence's UFO desk officer to come out and say that some UFO sightings are probably extraterrestrial in origin. It is not that I've gone mad, not that I've made a blind leap of faith, but that the conclusion I have drawn is the only one borne out by the evidence. (…) If you happen to watch a television documentary about UFOs these days, the people interviewed won't all be wide-eyed believers who have just spent the night camped out on top of some hill waiting for flying saucers. Nowadays you're likely to run across Harvard professors, Ministry of Defence under-secretaries, or maybe even a former chief of the defence staff. And when people of that calibre line up on the side of the believers, perhaps it's time to recognise that, despite some of the more pessimistic comments I've made here about attitudes, things might just be changing for the better. The great and the good, whatever they may say publicly, cannot fail to pay attention when such distinguished scientists, public servants and soldiers insist that we have an ongoing situation that causes them concern.”

[Rodeweeks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting, but you end up not knowing what to believe. I believe in the possibility of aliens and UFO's, but never seen for myself and definitely skeptical about some accounts of some people...

[Michael Huang · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reasonably comprehensive summary about UFOs from someone who worked in the government doing UFO report tracking. There are many aspects of the UFO that the book covers: reported phenomena, clear mistakes, still unexplained cases, alleged cover-ups, conspiracy theories, etc.

The bottom line is this: vast majority of UFO sightings are either known phenomena or delusion. However, some are puzzling and yet unexplained. Nevertheless, immediately linking an explained phenomenon to a highly unlikely hypotheses (alien visitation) only shows human tendency for the fanciful.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, though the obvious tales of ufos are fascinating, i like the points that are made regarding the MODs view that ufos are not a threat to british national security.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13538012

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dated but great background from a neutral source.

[Henrique Fendrich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Durante alguns anos foi, Nick Pope foi “o homem dos óvnis” no Ministério da Defesa britânico. Havia, e provavelmente ainda há, um setor responsável por lá para tratar de situações estranhas no céu que pudessem colocar em risco o país.

É legal observar que Pope, ao contrário dos seus antecessores, procurou tratar o assunto com a devida seriedade, o que, muitas vezes, significava dar crédito para situações que seriam negadas pelo senso comum.

Ao longo do livro é bastante reforçada a sua postura de ter uma mente “aberta” a todas as possibilidades, inclusive a de que aliens estejam invadindo o espaço aéreo britânico. Tanto viu, leu e estudou a respeito que acabou acreditando que isso de fato é o que está acontecendo.

Para Pope, essas visitas de aliens à Terra não são nada boas para nós. Ele cita vários casos em que a aparição de UFOs teria levado a sérios problemas de saúde, quando não o sumiço ou a morte do observador, sem falar nos casos de mutilação de animais de fazenda, também associados a uma possível ação alienígena. Tudo isso, em sua visão, configura crimes contra a humanidade.

A sugestão dele é que, inicialmente, a questão alienígena seja tratada de forma séria pelos governos, na medida em que pode ameaçar a humanidade. Por “tratar de forma séria” parece se incluir a própria cooperação com grupos de pesquisa ufológica, desde que preservada a identidade dos envolvidos. Uma vez que se pesquisa exaustivamente a questão, Pope considera que uma conclusão provável é a de que os aliens existem e estão nos visitando, além de nos causar uma série de problemas. Então ele sugere que, inicialmente, a humanidade, pacificamente, peça a eles que não cometam as violações que estão sendo cometidas. Caso isso seja ignorado, fatalmente, sustente ele, a coisa irá virar uma guerra contra os alienígenas. Pope acha que a guerra é a solução quando as outras formas de política não derem certo. E ele acha que a humanidade não está tão desfavorecida assim, em um combate eventual contra aliens.

É nesse ponto que a argumentação dele, em vez de favorecer a crença na hipótese extraterrestre dos aliens, a enfraquece. Porque ele dá a entender que a tecnologia dos alienígenas pode ser só um pouco mais avançada do que a nossa, dando como exemplo situações como a dos dirigíveis, que no final dos anos 1800 eram confundidos com UFOs. Por conta disso, os UFOs, naquela época, seriam pouco mais rápidos do que os dirigíveis, ou não seriam confundidos com eles. Depois, com os relatos de abdução nos anos 60, ele ressalta que são feitas referências a painéis de controle, chaves de comutação e gravadores de rolo. “Ninguém falava de leitura de quartzo líquido até que a tivéssemos inventado”.

Ora, aí está um argumento a sugerir que hipótese extraterrestre não seja a explicação para o Fenômeno UFO, pois os relatos sobre ele são associados às invenções do tempo presente. É um fumo muito forte achar que as espaçonaves que atravessavam o Universo, ainda que se valendo de uma “dobra” no espaço-tempo, pudessem estar não muito a frente do que um dirigível na época dos dirigíveis. Pope reconhece que isso possa ter a ver com o fato de os seres humanos só relatarem aquilo que conhecem, mas chega até a levantar a hipótese de que os aliens devem “correr” no seu desenvolvimento tecnológico a fim de ficar sempre um passo à frente da humanidade.

Claro que, como hipótese em assunto tão complicado, tudo pode ser admitido, mas essa é uma das que mais me espantaram.

Embora mais para frente Pope confesse que “essa seria uma guerra que não teríamos chance de vencer”, o que chama a atenção é o seu esforço para levantar a possibilidade de que a humanidade talvez possa “equilibrar” o confronto, se ele for mesmo necessário.

Ora, admitindo que esses aliens façam o que se diz que eles fazem, não há absolutamente nada que o ser humano atual possa fazer para enfrentá-los. Estamos nas mãos deles, se eles existirem e realmente nos visitarem.

Não me agrada também, nem um pouco, a defesa que Pope faz da guerra. É claro que, em condições extremas como essa, a de uma invasão espacial violando direitos de toda a espécie humana, sem falar da animal, um conflito bélico nos parecerá “justo”, ao menos em um primeiro momento. Mas não há um único conflito militar que não tenha parecido justo às pessoas que decidiram empreendê-los. Ao mesmo tempo, não há um único conflito que tenha terminado com todos os outros. Era só que faltava à humanidade mesmo, chegar a uma realidade espacial e continuar se matando igualzinho faz aqui na Terra.

Ademais, se Pope considera que é uma batalha perdida, qual é a razão de defender um confronto? Matar mais humanos só para termos o gostinho de dizer que não nos entregamos tão fácil assim? Infelizmente, há coisas sobre as quais não temos controle, como ele mesmo admite no parágrafo final do livro.

De toda forma, é claro que considero importante que existam mais Nicks Popes nos governos e que essa questão não seja tratada “às escuras”, mas discutida abertamente, a fim de que se chegue o mais próximo possível de uma verdade. Pode ser que, no fim das contas, tudo não passe de certas reações psíquicas mal compreendidas.

[David Searle · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Important Book

I like Nick Pope's approach to Ufology. He is open minded, not a "Believer' but goes with the facts and evidence. This is the only approach which can really be trusted. Anyone who has studied the facts cannot but accept that aliens exist. There have been literally MILLIONS of recorded sightings in the last 70 years... and if even ONE of them is true then Aliens exist... I do not believe that every single person who has reported a UFO encounter is either a hoaxer, confused or imaging it. Nick's more recent book on Rendlesham Forest incident is even better.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pope was genuinely the civil servant assigned by the Ministry of Defense to handle UFO cases, which gives him a certain amount of credibility, and his first-hand experiences are worth reading about...but he also appears to be the most credulous man on Earth. He'll believe just about ANYTHING. God help us if he ever gets his hands on a copy of the National Enquirer.

I say you should read the book, and you can probably count on him to accurately recount his own experiences, but you absolutely don't want to rely on his skeptical analysis of ANYTHING.

[Travis Stacey Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but not great

Much as I wanted to like this book (I’ve enjoyed previous work), I found this text a bit disjointed as well as spending too much time harping on the ETH as the ‘logical’ solution to UAP’s. On the positive side,though, there are some interesting case histories and the author does have a unique perspective as a government official who took reports.

[JimF Folds · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think Pope is a very interesting author. With his background he has seen a lot of things. I believe he is speaking the truth in his recalections of his experiences.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written. Excellent.

[Bill Jenkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I was looking for. Little detail on cases, more about what Pope did in his official capacity as UFO man for the UK. Fairly good short history of American UFOs toward the end of the book. Dated.

[Rosamore]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14517743