We are not alone: UK's secret files disclose UFO sightings

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Another report from 1983 from a 78-year-old man out fishing at midnight falls under the 'bizarre' category. It tells of the writer following aliens in green overalls on to a spaceship and then being told to go away because he was too old and weak for their purposes.

Then a 1985 typewritten letter to the ministry tells of an alien spaceship being shot down in the river Mersey in northern England by another spacecraft and the writer befriending an alien called Algar. Just as Algar was about to reveal himself to the government he was killed by another alien. He was still in telepathic contact with an alien called Malcben from the planet Platone in the Milky Way, the author added.

The ministry currently houses files on 11,000 sightings dating back to the 1950s. All the sightings were checked out in case they were Soviet aircraft probing Britain's defenses during the Cold War.

"Clearly some reports remain unexplained but we have found no evidence that these phenomena represent a threat to national security and therefore cannot justify devoting Defence resources to their investigation," an official letter from 1985 reads.

Nick Pope, who worked for the Ministry of Defense for 21 years and was responsible for investigating the sightings said, "Most of the UFO sightings here are probably misidentifications of aircraft lights and meteors, but some are more difficult to explain."

The ministry dismisses 90 percent of the reports as having mundane explanations and leave 10 percent with a question mark and the assurance they are of no threat.

Dr Clarke, who is a lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, said that conspiracy theories about aliens are "very difficult to disprove."

He said, "I doubt the disclosure of these files will convince those who believe there is an official cover-up. Inevitably, some have already dismissed this release as a whitewash. For them the 'truth' still remains out there, hidden no doubt in more above top secret files hidden somewhere else."

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