On January 5th, I examined the media reports that the Rendelsham Forest UFO case had been a prank all along. I discovered that research carried out into this claim by Dr David Clarke had been misreported by the majority of media outlets. I also wrote about how well-known Ufologist Nick Pope had launched a bizarre attack on Clarke based on this misreporting.

Pope accused Dr Clarke of being a plagiarist and a ‘needy, dishonest ufologist’. At the time of writing, (the afternoon of January 25th 2019), the posts are still present on his Facebook profile and Twitter timeline – almost one month later. I recently got in touch with Pope to see if he could detail for me how exactly Clarke had committed plagiarism, but he was unable to do so. It’s a pretty serious accusation, after all! Pope claimed that this allegation is based on the belief of a deceased investigator that her work was copied by Clarke. When I asked if it was possible to be shown the work which was plagiarised, I was told it no longer existed.

Based purely on the fact that word-of-mouth does not constitute evidence, I think it’s fair to say that no plagiarism exists and any accusations of such are wrong and damaging. Possibly intentionally so. I would seriously hope that Nick Pope considers removing such comments from his Social Media platforms because they don’t exactly show him in the best light, they’re misleading… and possibly libellous.

In our email exchange, Pope then went into detail about David Clarke’s guilt for ‘claiming credit for the work of others’. This is in relation to the release of Ministry of Defence documents about UFO sightings. Around the same time, I was talking to Dr Clarke about the subject of my previous blog post and the reaction from Pope. I shortly thereafter received an email from Clarke titled ‘My non-existent FOI campaign’ containing… well… literally the opposite. The email details an impressive wealth of documented work (over 3,000 pages of campaigning by Clarke!) spanning from 1999 to the modern day.

You can find full details of the work David has carried out on the official website of the National Archive here where it is also possible to obtain access to the released MOD UFO files. You can also read one part of a summary of Clarke’s work on his website here. So, although Nick Pope may be correct when he states that others were also appealing for the documents to be released, it’s certainly clear in my mind that David Clarke has been a key player here.

Not only this, but as the MOD point out themselves, their release of files actually pre-dated the 2000 activation of Freedom of Information laws. This can be seen referenced in a released MOD document dated from April 2006 briefing MP Norman Baker about the work of Nick Pope (DEFE 24/2032). In it the MOD say of Nick Pope that ‘his knowledge of this issue, other than from publicly available sources, must be regarded as dated.’

The document continues, ‘Mr Pope elected to describe his position as the “Head of the MoD’s UFO Project”, a term entirely of his ow invention … Mr Pope constantly puts himself forward in various parts of the media, solicited and unsolicited, as an “expert” (despite his lack of recent knowledge about the work carried on in the branch concerned) and seeks credit amongst other aficionados for having “forced” MoD to reveal its “secret” files on the subject. The latter is far from the truth, as we had begun publishing details of the most “popular” reports in the Publication scheme, prior to the advent of the Freedom of Information Act’.

So… who’s really a needy, dishonest Ufologist, huh?