LONDON, Oct 25 -
About 10 million pages contained in a secret military documents
have been exposed to asbestos, and now many secrets and mysteries of contemporary British history
likely to remain so. , writes the Daily Telegraph today, stressing that there are
63,000 folders among other things Arsenal
British nuclear secrets, the official version of the sinking of the ship
Belgrano during the Falklands-Malvinas war and the information on
'killing of IRA terrorists in Gibraltar
the hands of the united' Sas in 1988.
A decontamination and 'possible, but it will cost' tens of millions of euro and could
last year.
The Ministry of Defense said that the archives were moved
contaminated by a basement of the old War Office, where there 'was
exposure to asbestos, a department store in London, waiting to be decided
their fate. The contamination was already '
emerged last year, but a formal meeting on the subject and you
' held just last month. This delay
alarm groups that are fighting for
transparency, which may have access to these archives
under the Freedom of Information Act, a law in January 2005 from the first
many declassify military documents so far
CONFIDENTIAL and allows access by the public.
These organizations are concerned that the ground
asbestos, the ministry can now postpone
unlimited time to consult the archives contaminated.
Maurice Frankel, president of the Campaign for Freedom of Information
, said that''this is a problem
very seriously, and the Ministry of Defence must make a priority ',
since the law on freedom' information
is going to come into force.'' And Matthew Jones University '
of Nottingham, an expert on the Cold War and the race
British atomic weapon,''and' disturbed that the ministry may use the excuse of asbestos
to escape the rules of law.
These archives are irreplaceable evidence of
history of British foreign policy and defense
in the twentieth century.''
A ministry spokesman said that''the concern
more 'urgent of those responsible for archives and'
the protection of health personnel. They were then
considered potentially contaminated and sealed in plastic bags, in turn enclosed in wooden crates.''
For an experienced asbestos decontamination,
Bill Sanderson, who worked on the cleaning of the archives he
London Docklands Development Corporation who were exposed
asbestos in 1993, the standard procedure recommended, unless
that the papers of particular value, and 'their
destruction. But''in this case does not seem possible,''he explained
.
Another scholar, Peter Hennessy of Queen Mary's College
London, and 'lined up strongly against this possibility':
''We now know that these files exist, and can not destroy
. But I think we have thought of as the first
hypothesis. But these are the crown jewels of
generation of the Cold War, and we owe it to those people who have done many things
important and secret
for their country.''
The Ministry of Defence at the moment seems to reassure:
nothing will 'not be destroyed if' was first transferred to another medium
''''(copied from a scanner and transferred to a computer or copied onto microfilm
) to be stored
the National Archives.
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