SIT-Corporate Support Secretariat 
Ministry of Defence 
Main Building  
Whitehall 
London SW1A 2HB 
United Kingdom 
Telephone [MOD]:  +44 (0)20 7218 9000 
Facsimile [MOD]: 
+44 (0)20 7218 9948 
 
E-mail: 
[email address]
 
 
SIT/4/1 
 
Mr Martin Butcher 
E-mail:[FOI #9762 email]
 
   4 September 2009
 
Dear Mr Butcher, 
1. 
I am writing in response to your email of 6 August in which you requested reconsideration of 
the decision in my letter of 3 August to withhold information on your request for a list of SUBWOGs 
in accordance with Section 24 (National Security) and Section 27 (International Relations) of the 
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Information on the JOWOGs was provided in my letter of 14 May. 
You requested the following information: 
“Please list, for all meetings since 1992, the date, title and purpose of all JOWOGs and SUBWOGs 
meetings that have been held under the 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement between the United 
States and United Kingdom”  
 
2. 
I have reconsidered the decision and regret to inform you that the approach remains 
unchanged for the reasons set out in my letter of 3 August i.e. that the public interest in maintaining 
the exemptions outweighs the public interest in disclosure.  
 
3. 
I have noted your comment about material from the United States of America which is 
available on the internet, including certain papers from the 1980s and 1990s. Such material, if held 
by the UK MOD, would fall within the Section 21 exemption (Information reasonably accessible to 
the applicant by other means). Your request was to the UK MOD and we maintain that the 
information you requested is within the scope of the two qualified exemptions mentioned at 
paragraph one of this letter. Also your original request for information was for a “...list, for all 
meetings since 1992, the date, title and purpose of all JOWOGs and SUBWOGs meetings that have 
been held under the 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement between the United States and United 
Kingdom” which is outside the period of the material you found on the internet. 
  
 
 

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4. 
If you are still dissatisfied then you may apply for an independent internal review by 
contacting the Head of Corporate Information, 6th Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB 
(e-mail [email address]). Please note that any request for an internal review must be made 
within 40 working days of the date on which the attempt to reach informal resolution has come to an 
end. 
 
5. 
If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you may take your complaint to the 
Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act. 
Please note that the Information Commissioner will not investigate your case until the MOD internal 
review process has been completed. Further details of the role and powers of the Information 
Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's website, http://www.ico.gov.uk. 
 
Yours sincerely, 
Richard John 
Richard John 

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