The MoD department which has dealt with more than 12,000 reports, including 135 last year, is closing after 60 years.  MoD chiefs made the decision to close the £50,000 a year department after deciding there was no benefit investigating sightings which were "an inappropriate use of defence resources".  But Nick Pope, who ran the Ministry of Defence UFO project from 1991 to 1994, said it was "outrageous".

"We're leaving ourselves wide open to terrorist attacks," he said.  The decision comes after the team was moved from the MoD's Whitehall Headquarters to RAF Command in High Wycombe, Bucks.  After an application under the Freedom of Information Act, the MoD admitted that responding to every UFO sightings "diverts MoD resources from tasks that are relevant to Defence".

It said that in more than 50 years "no UFO report has revealed any evidence of a potential threat to the United Kingdom".  After investigation, around five per cent of reports remain unexplained.  "The MOD has no opinion on the existence or otherwise of extra-terrestrial life," the spokesman said. "The MOD has no specific capability for identifying the nature of such sightings."

They're looking for terrorists? I thought they were looking for intelligent life!

Not all the employees took the news well...

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