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THE TWILIGHT ZONE IIPC, the acquired data will be examined in the subsequent months. Those who participate will be mostly individuals who visit the IPC website— those who have some degree of interest in or curiosity about psychical studies. The survey can be accessed at Internet address . In order to ensure a wide-ranging sample of individuals from different areas, the IIPC calls for wide dis- semination of this survey, which is avail- able in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Partial results of this OOBE survey will be presented at the Ist Forum of Consciousness Research and the 2nd International Congress of Projectiology, which will be held from 21-24 October 1999 in Barcelona, Spain. The complete results and conclusions will be published in the Journal of Conscientiology. For more information on the survey, contact Wagner Alegretti or Nanci Trivellato at the IPC UK Office, 45 Great Cumberland Place, Marble Arch, London, WIH 7LH, UK; tel +44 (0)171 723 0544, e-mail . Official Secrets Act go hand in hand. Exactly why the Government has chosen to release this file is a mystery in itself, given that it sharply contradicts past asser- tions. The file in question (titled "UFO Policy") covers the period 1958 to 1963 and revolves around UFO investigations undertaken by various Air Ministry depart- ments during that time frame. Contained within the file is a six-page document dating from December 1960 and circulated at "Secret" level throughout the Royal Air Force. Like earlier papers, it details the procedures to be followed in the event that military radar operators, RAF pilots, civil aviation pilots or members of the public should report a UFO. Interestingly, however, the paper in question contains two eye-opening revela- tions. Firstly, it states that in situations where UFOs were tracked on radar, any military aircraft in the vicinity were to be diverted from their normal flight to "inves- tigate the phenomena". Secondly, and far more significant, is the Air Ministry's over- whelming desire to prevent the media and the public from learning about such intru- sions, trackings and interceptions. I quote from the paper in question: "The Press are never to be given information about unusual radar sightings. Unauthorised disclosures of this type will be viewed as offences under the Official Secrets Act." Although brief in nature, this document —which remained in use until the forma- tion of the Ministry of Defence on 1| April 1964 (how appropri- ate)—makes it abun- dantly clear that the UFO issue was indeed covered by the OSA. On another—but equally important— matter, the file in question also makes a very brief reference to a pre-1959 study of the UFO mystery car- ried out by none other than the British Government's Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC)! Certainly, it has long been recognised that, at various times since the late 1940s, investigations into UFO encounters have been undertaken by the Royal Air Force, the Air Ministry and the Ministry of Defence (MoD). However, the revelation that the JIC also carried out an investiga- tion more than 40 years ago is of great sig- nificance. Why so? Firstly, the membership of the JIC includes not just elite personnel from the MoD, the Treasury and the Foreign and Commonwealth Offices, but also the heads of MI5, MI6 and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) at Cheltenham! Secondly, the fact that (to my knowl- edge) no rumours have ever circulated to the effect that the JIC undertook its own UFO investigation program in the late 1940s or 1950s, is an indication of the level of secrecy that surrounded the project. The files at the Public Record Office concerning the JIC make no reference to a 1940s/50s UFO investigation. However, I am now actively looking to resolve this issue via several methods and hope ulti- mately to reveal further findings at a later date. At this stage, the extent to which any of these findings may have a bearing on the allegations of direct UFO studies undertak- en by the GCHQ, MIS and MI6, both decades ago and in the present day, can only be guessed at. (Source: News release, 16 May 1999, from Nick Redfern, UK, tel +44 [0]1922 691490) UFOs, THE BRITISH OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT & THE JOINT INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE by Nick Redfern as the British Government ever Hervises the use of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) to silence those implicated in the UFO subject? To those armchair researchers who proclaim that such an idea is absurd, I say "Think again". In my first book, A Covert Agenda, I presented clear evidence via officially released documents now available at the Public Record Office (PRO) at Kew, that in both 1953 and 1956 orders were circu- lated throughout the RAF, warning person- nel not to talk about the UFO issue outside of official channels. However, the records which had been declassified at the time I wrote the book did not directly reference the OSA or its potential use from a ufologi- cal perspective. Nevertheless, I was also able to present the testimony of a number of individuals (some with media ties) who asserted that the OSA had been used to keep the truth surrounding UFOs under wraps. Via a file that I secured only days ago from the PRO, however, I am now able to prove conclusively that UFOs and the NEXUS - 65 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 1999