Brits Tried to Quash UN's UFO Investigation

The disclosure of 8,500 pages of previously-classified British government documents related to the study of UFOs has revealed one telling episode, writes Lee Spiegel for Aol News. Back in 1978, while Speigel prepared a presentation on UFO sightings on behalf of the government of Grenada for the UN, the British defense ministry started a "whisper campaign" to make sure the UN would not touch the subject.

Spiegel and his supporters—among them, Sir Eric Gairy, the Grenadian PM—were working to convince UN authorities to create a permanent UFO study committee to investigate the phenomenon. But as he worked, documents show, British agents moved to disapprove the study committee before it ever got off the ground. The Ministry of Defense pushed the idea that "any such body would reduce the credibility of the UN," the documents show. "I think that was a very clever piece of PR, because what they were really doing was trying to scare the UN itself and say: 'You know, this might rebound on you,' " a current British official said. Click here for another time the Brits tried to quash UFO interest. (More Britain stories.)