UFO Exopolitics Summit 09 – Nick Pope

Nick Pope used to run the British Government’s UFO project at the Ministry of Defense. Initially skeptical, his research and investigation into the UFO phenomenon and access to formerly classified government files on the subject soon convinced him that the phenomenon raised important defense and national security issues, especially when the witnesses were military pilots or where UFOs were tracked on radar.

Nick also looked into other mysteries such as alien abductions, crop circles and ghosts. He now continues his research in a private capacity and is recognized as a leading authority on UFOs and the unexplained. He does extensive media work, lectures all around the world and has acted as consultant on numerous television documentaries.
During his time at the MOD he held the pay-grade of Senior Executive Officer, a middle rank in the UK Civil Service.
He has also been involved in work on the crises in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He had many different postings and had undertaken a series of jobs within the Department, including work in the Joint Operations Center during the Gulf War, where he was a briefer in the Air Force Operations Room.
Between 1991 and 1994, he was posted to a division called Secretariat (Air Staff) and was given the designated post of Sec(AS)2a), the main duties of which were dealings with non-operational Royal Air Force overseas activities and red tape for diplomatic for overseas military flights.
In addition to his main duties he was given the more minor task of documenting the UFO phenomenon,mirroring the work done in the US by the now defunct Project Blue Book. Although most of the cases could be explained as mis-identifications of known objects and phenomena, a hard core of sightings defied any conventional explanation.
He was the Ministry of Defense official responsible for researching and investigating UFOs, alien abductions, crop circles, cattle mutilation and other strange phenomena. His involvement in UFO phenomena within the MOD led to his self-description as the “British Fox Mulder” from the hit television series, The X Files.
As a result of the cases that he worked in Pope became a believer in UFO phenomena, and that UFOs raised serious defense and national security issues. He came across numerous instances where UFOs had reportedly been tracked on radar, leading to jets being scrambled. There were also cases where there had allegedly been near-misses between UFOs and civilian aircraft. All this led him to believe that an extraterrestrial explanation for some sightings such as the so-called Cosford Incident could not be ruled out.
In November 2006, he resigned from his post at the MOD, criticizing the MOD and saying the government’s “X-Files have been closed down.” Although no longer carrying out this sort of work for the government, he continues his research and investigation in a private capacity.
He is a ufologist and author who previously worked for the British Ministry of Defence from 1985.
Nick writes a column called Weird World for Hot Gossip online magazine and wrote the foreword to Georgina Bruni’s book on the Rendlesham Forest Incident, You Can’t Tell the People. In March 2006 an article giving his personal view on UFOs appeared in the Ministry of Defense’s magazine Focus under the title The Official Who Wants to Believe.

He makes frequent media appearances, including the BBC’s Newsnight and Radio 4’s Today program. He has lectured at academic conferences, museums, military bases and the Oxford Union.