The Daily Mirror
10 November 2006 EARTH: WE'RE WIDE OPEN TO ALIEN ATTACK UFO expert wants probes into sightings By Lucy Thornton THE Earth is wide open to an alien attack, a Government expert warned yesterday.
Former MoD chief Nick Pope said officials are not doing enough to probe UFO sightings leaving us vulnerable to an extra-terrestrial invasion.
Nick Pope, who ran the Ministry's UFO project from 1991 to 1994, said: "The consequences of getting this one wrong could be huge. Frankly we're wide open."
He said there has been a number of "highly credible" sightings and landings of strange metallic aircraft across the UK.
But don't panic, the scientist doesn't think we're on the verge of being over-run by Dr Who-style monsters.
Nick said: "There's no evidence of UFO hostile intent - but it cannot be ruled out in future.
He added: "There has got to be the potential for that and one is left with the uneasy feeling that if it turned out to be so, there is very little we could do about it.
"If you believe these things are extra-terrestrial craft then you cannot rule out that what is happening is some kind of covert reconnaissance."
Reports of UFO sightings include a "vast, triangular-shaped craft" lying over RAF Cosford, West Mids, and RAF Shawbury, Shropshire, in 1993.
But Nick, who quit his job at the MoD's Directorate of Defence Security this week, warned: "If you reported a UFO sighting now, I'm absolutely sure you would just get back a standard letter telling you not to worry.
"If something doesn't behave like a conventional aircraft now, it will be ignored. That's because the XFiles have been closed down."
But an MoD spokeswoman insisted all UFO sightings were investigated for "evidence to suggest that UK airspace has been compromised by hostile or unauthorised air activity".
She said: "Unless there is such evidence, the MoD doesn't attempt to positively identify what was seen."
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