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Britain says no to alien welcomes
The visitors traveling the longest distances to Britain will find the phones shut off. Citing the high costs of operation, the British military has shut down its UFO hotline. So, not only will aliens not be welcomed personally, the messages reported via their crop circles will go unreported. This is the end of a half-century commitment in the United Kingdom to helping the nutty find an audience.
According to the Ministry of Defense, ditching the UFO office will translate to an annual savings of around $73,000 a year, money much better spent supporting the 9,500 soldiers the country has deployed to Afghanistan. No jobs were lost as a result of this decision, and the military isn't taking a position on the existence of UFOs or alien life. More than 12,000 sightings were reported to the UFO office, some of which were accompanied by pictures drawn by those lucky enough to witness the arrival of little green men. None was interpreted as a threat to national security.
Many Britons are upset about the closing of the UFO hotline, which was accompanied by the deactivation of the UFO e-mail account. Roy Lake, founder of the London UFO Studies group, calls this "a threat to national security." He tells The Associated Press, "We take this quite seriously. We know that sometimes things can be explained as natural phenomena but there could be that one thing that's not. I think the government knows damn well what's going on up there and they're covering it up."
Of course, any life form that could find its way to Earth would probably master Twitter pretty quickly, so the shuttering of the British UFO office probably isn't a big deal. I can see it now: "Hey #Earth. Here from Mars. @Gadling reco place 2 stay? #herefromanotherplanet"
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense counters Lake's worries: "None of the thousands of UFO sightings reported over the years have ever provided substantiated proof of the existence of extraterrestrials." He continued, "There is no defense value in investigating UFO reports."
Nonetheless, Nick Pope sees a concern. He has helped the British military investigate UFOs and believes that the decision is "a great shame." Pope says the program encouraged pilots and other experts to tip off the authorities to suspicious activity, saying, "That's one thing we learned in the 9/11 attacks, the threat of incoming aircraft with transponders turned off." Meanwhile, he seems to overlook the fact that these risks can be addressed through many other existing channels of communication.
And, if you do see a UFO in Britain, there are still plenty of organizations you can call. And, there's always YouTube, as you can see from the clip below.
Gallery: Top Ten Strangest Hotel Guest Requests
[Photo by mujitra via Flickr]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Susan Dec 7th 2009 10:04PM
The ufo in vid is not unlike a ufo I witnessed in Bakersfield Ca. in 1966. I know this because that was the nite the stones did can't get no satisfaction on the ed sullivan show. Although the ufo I witnessed was at nite and hovered over me flashing mulit colored lites all of the colors of the spectrum with one large bright white light that flashed once. It veered off and in a blink of an eye was gone. It returned and veered off in the same direction pausing then gone IN A BLINK OF AN EYE. My friend said four months ago in a small town ( casitas springs ca.) while driving home from a late shift at work she witnessed a large black stealth looking craft coming over a hill and then retreating. It frightened her, she is a nurse, I know this woman would not lie about such a thing. What is going on and what is Britain attempting to hide, more importantly WHY. Also would like to add that my friend who viewed the stealth looking ufo states that there had also been alot of helocopter activity on the side of the hill from which it came. That area is desolate except for a ranch and cattle.
wowsers Dec 7th 2009 10:22PM
nice HD close up of some UFO activity! wow, so clear! the martians must be tiny in that little toy model plastic made in china? saucer. wish I would've been there, I would have thrown a rock at it or shot a rubber band at it.
loco Dec 7th 2009 10:35PM
all the ufo videos are lame, from CGI computer graphics, to the basic models with strings and pendulum camera action, to helicopters or planes... i used to believe in ufos then i grew up... honestly though, i thought that i saw one just yesterday at 10:30 am, a bright linear shiny metallic obection going horizontal fast. i was kinda scared since i was driving the freeway, so i changed lane to the right, slow lane to get ready to exit, but just as i did that, the sun changed direction and the scary flashing metallic light object, turned out to be a helicopter, which is what most sightings are anyway , or military planes...
gwd810 Dec 7th 2009 11:21PM
This is a remote control ship sold at many toy stores. About a week ago they showed people in China flying them around in a ceremony. You can find videos of them on you tube. I'm not saying that life doesn't exist somewhere else but this is definetly not one of them. I bought one of these for my nephew two years ago. Now if the balloon boy was dangling from it....it would have been more interesting.
mezl Dec 8th 2009 1:30AM
1- may be that money saved could go to help for home less people or abused kids or some such thing
2- the ufo lovers can form their own group with their own hot line
3- if some one is advanced enough to reach earth, what good would an early warning system do us any way? they could prob'ly fry our planet in seconds before we even knew they were here.... what are we gonna do, shoot nuclear missiles at them? i'm sure they would be so far advanced that it would be very like shooting peas at an elephant with a sling shot... though elephants do have very sensitive nerves and would prob'ly get really pissed.....
Tammy Dec 10th 2009 5:25PM
Can you say "Government coverup"?
Tony D. Dec 8th 2009 5:19AM
Great now I can't call anyone when I get to earth. HEY!!!! who gave you permission to print my picture. Is there lawyer in the house. I think I see $$$$.
Tony D. Dec 8th 2009 5:21AM
I just noticed. You showed my bad side.
Carmarger Dec 8th 2009 5:39AM
It should be that Countries all over the Planet be able to identify, and attempt to defend against, anything which is unidentified. If any craft can not be spoken for and can take off half-way across the sky in any direction in mere seconds, it becomes a huge potential threat. Though I too question the video, I've been witness to airborne craft which are far beyond any technology which we will have in the next 25 to 50 years. As close as we may be to achieving a means of defense, the US Gov't. has been pleading with foreign countries for decades NOT to let this information out as such aircraft remain unavailable and far from what we need. It appears the failure to defend our skies, no less our Planet, is still a massive failure. We may develop the speed, but not the weaponry. Our taxes continue to fail as we pay to have the Military protect us and all which is above us.