Dastardly foolishness in the UFO community
There’s been a tawdry turn among UFOers which, if you’re not a Facebooker, is noted by Kevin Randle at his blog: kevinrandle.blogspot.com
Brit David Clarke has resurrected a slur about Nick Pope’s credentials while working at the Military Office of Defense in England, Clarke writing that Nick never investigated UFOs, as Nick claims.
Kevin provides an answer and Nick, himself has defused the issue often when it was brought up previously by Mr. Clarke and others in the past.
Currently, it’s Philip Mantle whose beating the bushes with the accusation.
It’s lousy that Mantle and others are running with the smear.
Mantle says my pal Nick Redfern is also wringing Nick Pope’s neck over the accusation(s). I hope that’s not the case as Nick Pope is free of making flush his time and duties at MoD as Kevin points out and makes clear to his readers.
Why the boys are pressing the matter is baffling. It’s not true that Nick has pumped up his job at the MoD, but Clarke, Mantle, and maybe Nick Redfern say they have proof Nick Pope has enhanced his activity at the MoD. I haven’t seen the so-called “proof” but Kevin appears to have provided a concise clarification.
The brouhaha is sleazy in its import and beneath contempt.
But as Gilles Fernandez often says, "That's ufology."
RR
posted by RRRGroup at
Saturday, November 28, 2020
9 Comments:
Rich
Here's what I wrote in 2018, the article link below. That's what Philip is referring to.
Read it carefully and you'll see the big differences between what Nick Pope did and what other agencies did...
Are you aware that Nick never went out into the field to do a UFO investigation while he worked for the MoD? To me, that's not investigating.
And look at Nick's own words (in the article) where he admitted to me how small the budget was. Practically zero.
https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/08/u-k-government-ufo-research-the-real-picture/
Nick
By
Nick Redfern, at Sunday, November 29, 2020
The big issue is how you, me or any other UFO researcher interprets the word "investigation." It's a fact that Nick Pope received reports largely from the public. Nick did not hit the road to interview witnesses or to photograph sites etc etc. The reports that Nick received were forwarded on to the Defense Intelligence Staff (DIS) and it was the DIS who came up with an answer (aircraft lights, satellites etc etc).
By
Nick Redfern, at Sunday, November 29, 2020
I think two things can be true at the same time, and that is the case here. I think it is fair to say that Pope was for three years involved, in a general sense, as part of a larger bureaucracy and as part of his duties within that bureaucracy, in the investigation of UFO reports by the British government. I think it is also perfectly fair to say that said investigation was a very, very, very minor part of that bureaucracy’s overall mission, and that Pope has inflated both the importance of the investigation, and his role in it, over the years since he transitioned to the private sector.
PK
By
Paul Kimball, at Sunday, November 29, 2020
A few people on Facebook seem to feel the same, Paul, as you know.
Nick Redfern, in a private message seems inclined to agree I think.
I was mostly concerned with the relish that Phil Mantle was pursuing the matter.
It was and is a bit much.
RR
By
RRRGroup, at Sunday, November 29, 2020
Sounds like he was actually a point of where some UFO reports might have been directed. Were there others who might have received reports to be recorded and referred to others? SOMEONE had to answer the phone. "Who ya gonna call...?"
It would be nice to know the extent of ANY ufo investigations being made based on reports called in. Think: The report was what was seen last night by mom or dad... Why would any agency respond to what happened yesterday or for that matter an hour ago by civilians?
A significant problem with UFO sightings is that, while astounding sometimes, they are commonly brief and singular.
Sending out the troops after the fact would usually achieve nothing at the common significant expense of even a limited interview by professionals. That applies to sightings today.
Someone just answering the phone in triage alone could be a big deal. Maybe he was.
BD
By
Bryan Daum, at Sunday, November 29, 2020
Yah, Bryan, Nick Pope was in the thick of things regardless of what his detractors are saying (writing).
MoD would downplay his job there as Nick is all over the place undermining their activity and coverups.
RR
By
RRRGroup, at Sunday, November 29, 2020
Sayre's law tells us that academics are vicious and petty a**holes because "the stakes are so low" in the academic world.
The same law explains this sort of behavior in ufology. It's just that the stakes are even lower.
What a joke.
Martin
By
Anonymous, at Monday, November 30, 2020
Yes, you can do an investigation by phone, or by letter, but Nick made it seem like it sounded much more by referring to what he did was running a "project."
Indeed, if you go to his website the very first words at the top of his bio read as follows: "Nick Pope ran the British Government’s UFO project."
There was no "project." It was just receiving and replying to letters and getting phone calls and replying.
And, there's what Nick himself told me way back in the early 1990s (when he wasn't in the media) about the tiny budget they had for dealing with UFO reports:
"There is no specific ‘UFO budget,’ except the staff costs, i.e. around 20 % of my salary, together with a tiny percentage of some other salaries, reflecting my line management’s supervisory role.” My italics.
But, then a few years later he's suddenly telling people he's running a government UFO project?
Here's the link where Nick states he ran the "UFO project" right at the top of the page:
http://nickpope.net/wpte19/biography/
By
Nick Redfern, at Monday, November 30, 2020
The big irony in all this is that there really were several agencies that did secret investigations (and who also had the budget to go around the UK - unlike Nick P).
I explained all of this in a 2018 article.
You'll see the huge difference between what Nick did and what the other agencies did:
https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/08/u-k-government-ufo-research-the-real-picture/
By
Nick Redfern, at Monday, November 30, 2020
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