Ministry of Defence reveals UFO files

Conspiracy theorists delight in UFOs -- and for them Men in Black was the epitome of UFO hunting. Cool guys (women apparently don't care) with even cooler technology pursuing and pulverising the alien threat to life as we know it.

Turns out the reality is very different. How do we know? Well another slew of Ministry of Defence documents have just been handed over to the National Archive and published on-line.

And among them is a plaintive little email that tells it like it is. It's from an unnamed UFO desk officer (at the most junior management grade) who left the UFO desk when it moved from one MoD department to another. He says he wants to set down what the job involves, "in case he falls under a bus" - so at least he's got a sense of humour. Most of the time he says he's answering the phone, or logging UFO sightings or telling the public the MoD is neutral on the question of whether UFOs exist or not. But when it comes to investigating sightings he says:

He says MoD have no experts and does no scientific research. He adds:

So no Men in Black. Rather a Chap in Black, armed not with the latest technology but the power of Google. Almost as ridiculous as the sightings the poor soul had to handle.