Parapedia - Project Condign
Project Condign was the name given to a top-secret UFO study undertaken by the British Government's Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) between 1997 and 2000.
The results of Project Condign were compiled into a 400-page document titled Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK that drew on approximately 10,000 sightings and reports that had been gathered by Defence Intelligence (DI55). It was released into the public domain on 15 May 2006 after a September 2005 Freedom of Information Act request by UFO researchers Dr David Clarke, a lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, and Gary Anthony, a former BUFORA astronomical consultant. The identity of the report's author/s was not made public.
Conclusions
UFOs
The report concluded that UFOs had an observable presence that was "indisputable", but also that they did not represent crafts under intelligent control. According to its author/s most UFO sightings were likely the result the misidentification of common object such as aircraft and balloons, or were the result of known/ little-understood astronomical or meteorological phenomena (such as meteorites and atmospheric magnetic disturbances) which would not be recognized by most observers.
Close Encounters
The report described people who believed themselves to have had close encounters as being convinced of what they said that they had seen/experience, but also as not representing proof that such encounters were real. It attributed a number of cases to the "close proximity of plasma related fields" which it said could "adversely affect a vehicle or person".
Reaction
According to Clarke, the release of the documents did not shed any new light on UFOs or the UFO phenomenon, but did show that the DIS had been conducting a far larger investigation of the topic than it had previously let on.
The results of Project Condign were compiled into a 400-page document titled Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK that drew on approximately 10,000 sightings and reports that had been gathered by Defence Intelligence (DI55). It was released into the public domain on 15 May 2006 after a September 2005 Freedom of Information Act request by UFO researchers Dr David Clarke, a lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, and Gary Anthony, a former BUFORA astronomical consultant. The identity of the report's author/s was not made public.
Conclusions
UFOs
The report concluded that UFOs had an observable presence that was "indisputable", but also that they did not represent crafts under intelligent control. According to its author/s most UFO sightings were likely the result the misidentification of common object such as aircraft and balloons, or were the result of known/ little-understood astronomical or meteorological phenomena (such as meteorites and atmospheric magnetic disturbances) which would not be recognized by most observers.
Close Encounters
The report described people who believed themselves to have had close encounters as being convinced of what they said that they had seen/experience, but also as not representing proof that such encounters were real. It attributed a number of cases to the "close proximity of plasma related fields" which it said could "adversely affect a vehicle or person".
Reaction
According to Clarke, the release of the documents did not shed any new light on UFOs or the UFO phenomenon, but did show that the DIS had been conducting a far larger investigation of the topic than it had previously let on.