Overview
- The U.S. Navy's personnel office said it will no longer provide service histories for sailors on public request, a change that extends a recent order to remove public profiles of commanding officers.
- The Navy will still confirm whether someone is a sailor only in cases it judges to be of "high public interest" and says other details such as rank, assignments and awards will be withheld until an undefined threat has passed.
- Officials told reporters the expansion followed an incident in which the Navy initially refused to release an Associated Press request for a Blue Angels pilot biography before the office later provided the file after questioning.
- The move comes as the Pentagon seeks a new legal tool to exempt certain controlled unclassified information, or CUI, from Freedom of Information Act requests and as critics including the Pentagon inspector general say CUI has been used too broadly.
- Press advocates and First Amendment lawyers warn the policy could make reporting on injured or newsworthy service members harder and say it may trigger legal challenges to recent limits on military press access.