UFO Reports
Dear Department of Defence,
I request any information regarding unidentified flying objects that have been seen by civilians and/or military and commercial pilots.
Yours faithfully,
Ben Harrison
Alex Sadleir left an annotation ()
The National Archives have highlighted a range of documents they hold about UFOs that are available online
http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/a-z/ufo...
http://yourmemento.naa.gov.au/2011/03/wh...
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Harrison
Thank you for your email to the Department of Defence (Defence) submitted
on 30 October 2014, requesting access to the following under the Freedom
of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).
“any information regarding unidentified flying objects that have been seen
by civilians and/or military and commercial pilots.”
This email is to acknowledge the receipt of your request and to advise you
that the request has not been accepted as valid under the Act. I will set
out the reasons below. Before doing so, I will outline the requirements
for a valid FOI request. In doing so, I hope to assist you to resubmit
your request as one that the agency can accept as valid.
Valid FOI request
Section 15 of the Act provides that a person who wishes to obtain access
to a document of an agency may request access to that document. To be
valid, the request be in writing, state that the request is an application
under the Act and give details of how notices under the Act may be sent to
the applicant (ss15(2)(a), (c) and (d) of the Act). Finally, the request
must ‘provide such information concerning the documents as is reasonably
necessary to enable a responsible officer of the agency, or the Minister,
to identify it’ (s.15(2)(b)). This provision allows an agency to balance
the resources it will need to use to identify and locate documents against
an applicant’s right to request access to the documents.
Application of s15(2)(b) to your request
I note that the scope is expressed very broadly. For example, the phrase
‘any information’ includes all emails, email chains, drafts, different
versions of drafts and duplicates/copies of the documents that might fall
in scope. These documents would range from emails to departmental policies
through to media releases.
I am satisfied that your request does not meet the requirements in
s15(2)(b) of the Act and so is invalid as your request does not provide
sufficient information for Defence to identity the documents that you are
interested in. Please clarify if there are particular documents that you
are interested in.
To assist you in revising the scope of your request some of the following
information may be of some help:
a. Documents dated prior to 31 December 1987 are in the "open access"
period as defined by the Archives Act 1983 and as such must be sought
under the Archives Act not the Freedom of Information Act 1982. Refer to
attached fact sheet 10. A search of the National Archives of Australia
(NAA) website using search parameters of UFO, Unidentified Flying Objects,
and Unusual Aerial Sightings will return a number of files which are
publicly available and many have already been accessed and a digital copy
is available on the website.
b. Since 1996 the Australian Defence Forces no longer accepts reports
on unusual aerial sightings (UAS), persons who wish to report a UAS are
directed to their local police authorities. Further information is
available at the following link:
[1]http://news.defence.gov.au/2011/06/08/re...
c. Documents available on the Defence Disclosure Log which may be of
interest to you: 395/13/14 - Publications relating to RAAF 41 Wing
[2]http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/Decisions/...
Action required
Would you please clarify the details as specified above by 17 November
2014, to enable Defence to begin processing your FOI request. If you do
not contact me by the date mentioned above, or an additional period of
time is not agreed, your request will be withdrawn.
Point of contact details
I can be contacted by telephone on (02) 626 62200 or via email at
[3][email address]. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you
have any questions in relation to this matter.
Regards,
Andrea Sansom
Acting Director - Freedom of Information
Ministerial and Executive Coordination and Communication Division
Department of Defence | CP1-6-012|
PO Box 7910 | CANBERRA BC ACT 2610
Ph: 02 626 63754
Fax: 02 626 62112
email: [email address]
Locutus Sum left an annotation ()
Mr Harrison, may I please suggest that you send immediately to the Department of Defense an amended request. The request you have made will be initially rejected. The reason for the rejection is because your request is too big. Department of Defense will tell you it is a "practical refusal reason".
You can send an amendment from Right to Know with the options on the existing request page. You could write like this: "I would like to amend my earlier request regarding information on unidentified flying objects. I now request etc. etc."
So, to explain. You have asked for "any information". The Department will ask, "since when?" Do you make them try to search all records since 1947 when there is the first report of a "flying saucer" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidentifi...) or must the Department search only perhaps since the new millenium?
Also, what is meant with "unidentified"? Do you mean that if a person telephones the police and says, "I can see a UFO from by house", and the ministry knows that it is a Qantas airplane, is this an "unidentified" object. If you do not like this idea, then maybe the person reports an object, and the ministry also does not know what it is at this time. Another year later and the ministry has learnt that a scientist has discovered a meteorite and this is the explanation. Must the Department of Defense tell you this is an "unidentified" object because at first they did not know. Or must they not tell you, because now the Department of Defense does know what the object was?
It will be necessary to think carefully about exactly what you want to know, and to try to ask the Department. Also the Department is not required to create a new document for you. The FOI Act only gives you a right to access a document that already is in the records.
To make a summary here: think about the time since when the Department of Defense must search, think on what you mean with "unidentified", ensure that you make your request for a particular document or documents.
The reason I suggest to write immediately is because otherwise there is a big waste of time. The DoD maybe will not reply to you for 30 days. Then when you send a new request, there will be another 30 days.
Held og lykke!!