UFO Files Held From Public Because of Abestos?

MoD cites asbestos fear in rejecting information pleas

By Ian Cobain
The Guardian
12-28-05

     Thousands of the government's most sensitive secret documents are being held back from publication under the Freedom of Information Act on the grounds that they may be contaminated by asbestos.

     Ministry of Defence officials say the documents were stored in an area of the old War Office building in Whitehall where asbestos was discovered a number of years ago.

     Dozens of requests for information made under the FoI have already been turned down by the ministry, and a number of documents dating back to 1975, which were due for automatic release under the 30-year rule, are also being held back.

     Officials say that the contents of each file will eventually be considered for release once it has been decontaminated and copied. That process is unlikely to be completed before summer of 2007 at the earliest.

     Some 63,000 files, containing around 10m pages, are affected.

     The MoD has turned down 27 requests for information, concerning 288 files, which were made under the act.

     Of the approximately two dozen files which the Guardian has identified none appear to concern routine matters. All bear titles which suggest that they would have remained unseen for many years had the Freedom of Information Act not become law.

     One is entitled Sale of Arms to Saudi Arabia. Another is Production of Chemical Weapons, while a third is Medical Aspects of Interrogation. Several files about SAS operations in Borneo are being withheld, as are others about the financing of GCHQ, the government's eavesdropping organisation.

     There are also a number of files with intriguing titles such as Operation Tiara, Operation Grape, and Project R1, as well as some which contain details of supposed UFO sightings.

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