Classified Docs Reveal UK Tried to Stop Worldwide UFO Investigation
Mar 7, 2011 – 7:35 AM
Lee Speigel
Translation by Autumnson Blog
When Britain released 8,500 pages of previously classified UFO files last week, one set of key documents quickly caught my attention and had a profound effect on me as it took me back in time 33 years.
當英國上週公佈8,500頁先前被分類為機密的UFO文件，一組重要的文件迅速引起我的注意，並對我產生深遠的影響，因為它帶我時光倒流33年。
The file includes many pages detailing the British government's attempt in 1978 to derail the country of Grenada's plan to convince the United Nations to form a special UFO study committee. The reason these documents resonated so strongly with me is because I'm the one who produced Grenada's UFO presentation at the U.N. all those years ago.
該檔案包含許多頁詳述英國政府在1978年的企圖，去破壞格林納達國說服聯合國的計劃，以形成一個特別的不明飛行物研究委員會。這些文件之所以如此強烈地與我共鳴，是因為我是那個在那些年前於聯合國製作格林納達的不明飛行物介紹的人。
At the time, Grenada's prime minister, Sir Eric Gairy, was trying to generate U.N. interest in his UFO committee idea, but many member nations weren't paying a lot of attention to him. Meantime, after producing a documentary record album for CBS Inc. called "UFOs: The Credibility Factor," I wanted to take the early notion of UFO disclosure to the U.N.
當時，格林納達的總理埃里克蓋裡爵士，試圖產生聯合國對他的UFO委員會的想法的興趣，但許多會員國並沒有關注他。同時，經過出示一套紀錄片記錄集稱為“不明飛行物：信譽因素”給 CBS公司，我想對聯合國帶來UFO概念的早期披露。
AOL News contributor Lee Speigel (on the right, counterclockwise, third person in) organized a meeting of military, scientific and psychological experts with U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim on July 14, 1978, to plan a presentation to the U.N. Special Political Committee. Topic: the importance of establishing an international UFO study panel.AOL新聞貢獻者李Speigel（右邊第三人，逆時針，）於1978年7月14日組織一個軍事、科學和心理專家與聯合國秘書長瓦爾德海姆的會議，計劃給聯合國特別政治委員會作一介紹。題目：對建立一個不明飛行物國際研究小組的重要性。
So I met and made a deal with Gairy, under which his country would sponsor a credible presentation at the U.N. that I would produce, to include astronomer (and former UFO consultant to the Air Force) J. Allen Hynek, French astrophysicist Jacques Vallee, nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman and Army Lt. Col. Larry Coyne, who related his story of the night he and his helicopter crew had a terrifying close encounter with a UFO.
所以我會見並與蓋裡提出一項交易，藉此他的國家將贊助一次在聯合國的可信陳述，即我會製作的，介紹包括天文學家（和前空軍UFO顧問，）艾倫希內克、法國天體物理學家雅克瓦利、核物理學家斯坦頓弗里德曼和陸軍中校拉里柯尼，他敘述他的晚間故事，他和他的直升機機組人員有一次可怕的近距離UFO接觸。
Little did I know, until just last week, that while I spent 1978 preparing for that U.N. event, the British government was essentially trying to stop the creation of the commission I was hoping to bring to life.
沒想到，剛直到上週，儘管我花去1978年準備那聯合國活動，但英國政府實質上是在試圖阻止該委員會的建立，那是我希望能帶來生命的。
One 1978 document just released in the British National Archives addresses the United Kingdom's desire to oppose a UFO committee out of fear that it would ultimately cause the U.N. to fall into some sort of disrepute:
The British delegation does not think that the establishment of an agency for research into unidentified flying objects is appropriate to the functions of the United Nations. ...
Hopefully, a confrontation with the representatives of Grenada can be avoided, but the U.K. should not hesitate to make its views known as and when appropriate. ...
Foreign and Commonwealth Office ministers expressed the view that to set up any such body would reduce the credibility of the U.N.; accordingly, the U.K. delegation was instructed to oppose.
I wondered why Britain suggested that an international commission to study UFOs "would reduce the credibility of the U.N." With that question in mind, I called Nick Pope in London. For three of the 21 years he worked in the Ministry of Defense, he was chief of the British government's UFO Project.
"I think that was a very clever piece of PR, because what they were really doing was trying to scare the U.N. itself and say to the U.N.: 'You know, this might rebound on you,' " Pope told AOL News.
Nick Pope The UK ufo Archives
尼克卜皮的英國UFO檔案
2008-05-14
"Well, actually, there was no evidence that that was the case, and in fact, the people -- who, after all, the U.N. is supposed to represent, aren't they? -- are incredibly interested and always have been in this.
"So it was a complete fabrication and a very clever piece of brinkmanship to sort of scare the U.N. into thinking that setting up a commission would damage their reputation. But actually, the opposite would've been the case: The people would've said, 'This is great, this is what we want, we're interested in this.' "
Pope hadn't yet started his career at the Ministry of Defense, or MoD, when I was involved with Grenada and the UFO event at the U.N., but he's quite familiar with the documents. He speculates that MoD and Foreign and Commonwealth officials conspired to lobby, both publicly and privately, to kill the UFO proposal.
"This is completely in line with MoD's longstanding policy to downplay both the phenomenon itself and the department's involvement in it. So what you've got is behind-the-scenes machinations where defense officials and diplomats are basically plotting, casting aspersions, probably starting a whispering campaign against Sir Eric Gairy."
Despite the serious and credible speakers I brought to the United Nations, shortly after our presentation, Gairy was ousted in an early 1979 coup.
"While you had some big hitters, I think you were fighting against the dead hand of inertia -- the powers that be," said Pope. "Clearly, behind closed doors, conversations had taken place and it had been made clear that this must not happen.
"And it's interesting, though this is speculation only, to wonder whether some of the actions that the British took led either directly or indirectly to his ousting."
Ever since that series of events that led me to the United Nations in 1978, I've never doubted that what we did there was important. Astrophysicist Vallee, who served as the model for the French scientist portrayed by Francois Truffaut in the classic 1977 film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," agrees that it wasn't a waste of our time.
"In a way, it was a high-water mark on the thinking about the phenomenon," Vallee said. "It is sort of a milestone, and I'm proud of the fact we did that. It didn't go anywhere, but at least we proposed the idea of the sharing of data."
A U.N. news conference followed a 1978 presentation by scientists on the need to establish an international study committee about UFOs. From left are nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman, Speigel, Grenada Minister of Education Wellington Friday, Grenada Prime Minister Eric Gairy, and astronomers J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallee.一個聯合國新聞發布會接著一個科學家在1978年的介紹，就需要建立一個關於不明飛行物的國際調查委員會。左起是核物理學家斯坦頓弗里德曼、Speigel、格林納達教育部長惠靈頓週五、格林納達總理埃里克蓋裡、和天文學家艾倫希內克及雅克瓦利。
With Pope's unique perspective of years handling and analyzing official British documents, he's not completely surprised at how the whole '78 U.N. incident was handled.
"After more than 30 years, people are still talking about it. It may have taken this latest release of UFO files to bring it back into the spotlight, but nobody can rewrite the past," Pope said.
"This actually happened, and today's discovery that the dead hand of bureaucracy was conspiring against you perhaps enables you to say, 'We hold and have always held the moral high ground here.' Because you went in well-intentioned, believing that there was an issue that needed to be addressed (and I agree with you), and it's only now, over 30 years later, that you find that the deck was rigged."
Well, even though Pope was still a teenager back then, we both laughed as he now offered me an unofficial apology.
"I had no direct involvement in this, but on a personal level, I'm sorry that my government did that."
Thanks, Nick. I'm not one to hold a grudge, and I'm just happy to have been a part of it all.
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/07/classified-docs-reveal-uk-tried-to-stop-worldwide-ufo-investigat/
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