Thursday, March 1, 2018

Transparency watch (one in a series)

From this article in the San Diego Union-Tribune about a pending case involving a Marine Corps officer we also learning the following:
Unlike most other military units nationwide, policies instituted by officials at 3rd Marine Air Wing, Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, 1st Marine Division and Marine Corps Recruit Depot have delayed or blocked release of criminal justice information to citizens, often for months after a court-martial trial concluded.

Even a list of court-martial cases that was supposed to appear on an online trial docket was denied to the Union-Tribune before Navy officials overturned that decision following a formal appeal by the newspaper to an administrative court at the Navy.

After that victory and two other successful appeals, the Union-Tribune awaits decisions in five other cases filed against the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Marine Corps Recruit Depot and several other commands that refused to release records tied to three suspicious deaths at Camp Pendleton as well as multiple rape, battery and criminal cases tied to the troops.
Isn't it time there was a DoD-wide system for this kind of information? 

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