1 - The Black Vault

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From:
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
:g; :g @Did War Office Building, Whitehall, London. SWIA 2EU
rrectal:
Switch Board:
~ ..
Ministry of Defence,
DAS4a(Sec),
Room 8243 Main Building,
Horse guards A venue,
.London.
Your Reference:
D/DAS(Sec)/64/3-12th Dec 00
Our Reference:
D/DI551108/15
Date:
15 Dec 2000
Dr CLARKE's REQUEST FOR ACCESS TO FILES ON UFOs
At your reference above you have asked whether papers up to 1981 on Part 4 of file DI55/108/15
can be released to the PRO. This file was opened on 9th December 1971 and closed on the 11
December 1996 with retention recommended for 10 years.
It is not MoD Policy to spilt or disturb closed files, doing so would be likely to create future
concerns and suspicion when these files are released to PRO.
You also asked for our view on whether MoD should reveal that file part 3 of file D/DI55/40/9/1
has been destroyed. DI55 sees no reason not to be open about the destruction of this file in 1984
but we do not have any information relating to its destruction. You should be aware that DIST
wrote to Hd Sec (AS) on the 4th December 2000 terminating any further involvement of DI55 in
UAP reporting on the grounds that it is not a formal task and that, in 30 years, no evidence has been
found of relevance to DIS interests.
Copy to:
HdDIS(Sy)
AD/DI55
OMD14