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This MoD file, titled UFOs - Persistent Correspondence - Dr David Clarke, holds Dr David Clarke's Freedom of Information requests and emails to the Directorate of Air Staff from 2005 to 2008. Clarke asked for the DI55 report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defence Region and for Rendlesham papers. He also sought records about Nick Pope. Other items include an internal review that released redacted passages on plasmas, the MoD's statement that it had no report of the 2008 South Wales police helicopter sighting, and a 2009 disposal form.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
Sent: 20 March 2006 16:09 To: Section 40 ENCLOSURE 33 NUMBER Subject: Internet-authorised:FOI Request Importance: High ## Dear Dr Clarke Thank you for your e-mail of 13 March containing comments about the contents of my e-mail of 8 March. I will address these in the same order as your message. First, with regard to your remarks about the whereabouts of the author of the report, I can confirm he was not an MOD employee or RAF Aircrew. He was a contractor working for a private company, who was temporarily employed by the MOD as a consultant. In order to answer your questions, DIS did take the trouble to contact his employer who advised that he had retired and they had no forwarding address. As he was neither an employee of the MOD or in the RAF, the MOD does not hold any pension details for him. As for your comments regarding information from the report that is to be redacted / withheld, I can assure you that all of those involved in considering the report for release are keen to ensure that as much information as possible is released and information is only redacted where absolutely necessary. A great deal of time and effort has (and still is) being expended, particularly by DIS staff, in order to check the contents with the Departments subject matter experts and others where necessary, where the report contains information that is still potentially sensitive. Any information that is redacted will be withheld in accordance with appropriate sections of the Freedom of Information Act and the reason for this will be explained in the covering letter which will be sent with the report. Your right of appeal against any of these decisions will also be explained in this letter. With regard to your remarks about the interpretation members of the public may put on any information withheld, we are fully aware of the public interest in UFO information and the fact that the public may make assumptions and allegations about the MOD's motives. However, we believe it is far more important in the general interest of the public that the MOD does not release information that could cause harm to the defence of the UK. Finally, you mentioned our article in Focus magazine and the remark about the "UFO Project". I can confirm that to our knowledge, there is and never has been any such "Project". Nick Pope also wrote an article for Focus, which appeared in the same addition, below ours. However, this is not the same as the one shown on the Virtually Strange website. As requested, I have sent you a copy of the March issue in the post today. I hope this is helpful. Yours sincerely, Ministry of Defence Directorate of Air Staff - Freedom of Information 5th Floor, Zone H, Desk 13 Main Building Whitehall LONDON SW1A 2HB e-mail:das-ufo-office@mod.uk 20th March 2006
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 160 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.