By Paul Dean, 21 February 2016
(UFOs – Documenting The Evidence, Melbourne, Australia)
Quote from the article:
“I have been recently reporting on the release of
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) policy material which concerned the
cancelling of Australia’s official 40 year acceptance and study of UFO reports.
My work can be found in three previous parts: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. At the
end of Part 3, I wrote:
‘I could continue providing textual transcription and
imagery of this significant piece of Australian DoD history, but this series
needs to be finalized, and anyone who wants to study the records provided to me
merely needs to ask. It is absolutely worth other researchers having a look at
this material. I have taken much away from these records, and, if nothing else,
it proves that the RAAF can locate and prepare 20 year old records with what
appeared to me to be relative ease. Also, in regards to the redactions of text
found in this release, on the 17th of January, 2016, I appealed the DoD’s FOI
decision makers and asked for the blacked-out text to be released in full. I
expect an answer by February’s end.’
And that is where, even considering my appeal for
redacted (blacked-out), I believed the matter would probably end. Gut instinct
told me, on this occasion, that the Department of Defence (DoD) and its Freedom
of Information (FOI) branch, had provided me with what I wanted, and that the
sections of redacted text would stay like that until I revisited the issue in
years to come.
To my surprise, I was quite wrong.
The DoD have not only released most of the records with
far fewer redactions, they’ve done so without cost and at an impressive pace.”
(defence.gov.au image)
