DC Bureau - Investigative Journalism, Environmental News, and National Security Stories That Matter

[UPDATE] NSNS now confirms that one of the cases we are looking at during our six-month investigation, which involves scores of interviews and documents, established that flag rank officers engaged in a cover-up that involved the Navy and City of Norfolk, Virginia, that has been ongoing since the summer of 1964.

The Navy applies a double standard for its political friends and ordinary sailors. When NSNS sought the records of a sailor assigned to Portsmouth Naval Hospital during the same time period as the records the Navy later denied, we received those detailed records in a timely fashion. When the Navy realized that Senator McCain was involved in a separate request, they refused to release similar duty station logs for Portsmouth Naval Hospital on the specious grounds of privacy. Such admission records to a Naval hospital have historically been fully releasable. After the Navy denied our request for expedited release of these documents, NSNS had no other option than to file the lawsuit and tell the court why it was in the public’s interest to expedite this release.

The Navy took the absurd position that documents from 1964 are historical and, therefore, of no urgency. The Navy also did not tell the truth about when it learned from us that John McCain was part of the story. The Navy claimed to the court that that did not happen until after October 14, when, in fact, the Navy was told through a PIO in Portsmouth (verbally and by email) on September 14, 2008.

When we filed the lawsuit, the Navy asked NSNS to give them the names we were looking for and they would then tell us whether or not these names were in the logs. NSNS declined their offer, but it was a curious request of a news organization from Navy lawyers.

Even more outrageous is that in its court filings the Navy included an affidavit from a Navy historian saying that McCain was not assigned to Norfolk during the dates we requested. This was not relevant to our FOIA but it was relevant to steering the old media, responding to the Huffington Post, away from the story by convincing anyone who quickly read the filings that McCain was not in Norfolk when an accident took place. Unfortunately, that affidavit only said that McCain was assigned to Pensacola, Florida, at the time. Because his duty records have never been released, there is no way to confirm that McCain was not in Norfolk, a place where he, in his owns books, said he often spent weekends during this time period.

I cannot go into any further details of the story because we are reporting with Vanity Fair. I can say, however, that the Navy successfully has delayed the story by stonewalling on these records.

We have taken on this story and the United States Navy because there is mounting evidence that the Navy has protected former officers who went on to political careers by controlling access to their Navy personnel records. Senator McCain is not the only politician we are looking at. The Navy is not the only service we are examining for this kind of favoritism. Their actions regarding Portsmouth Naval Hospital records clearly make the point that the politically powerful get far different treatment than a seaman like Donald A. Horne. No one denied us his duty station records.

Documents from National Security News Service et. al vs. United States Department of Navy:

- NSNS Complaint + Exhibits

- NSNS Motion for Summary Judgment

- Navy Memorandum in Opposition + Exhibits

- NSNS Memorandum to Correct the Record

- Navy Erratum

- Memorandum and Decision of the Court