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Saturday, February 28, 2009

Navy decides to close inspection reports

Inspection reports on the Navy's ships, aircraft carriers and submarines are now classified information, the Navy Times reported. The reason for the change is not yet known.

The Navy has classified regular reports about the material condition of its fleet, an about-face from when the reports were accessible as public documents under the Freedom of Information Act.

The reports, filed by the Board of Inspection and Survey, or InSurv, contain the findings of meticulous, days-long inspections that cover every detail of the workings of surface ships, aircraft carriers and submarines.

In December, InSurv president Rear Adm. Raymond Klein decided the reports were to be classified, said Linda Alvers, the FOIA coordinator for Fleet Forces Command. She said she did not know why. Also unclear was whether the classification order applied only to InSurvs performed after December, or whether it included reports from before then.

More here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

One question: Would this change affect what the public would find out when programs run into problems? (See, for example, the Coast Guard's Deepwater, a hugely expensive program to replace an aging fleet with boats that turn out to have perhaps fatal flaws.

Under the new policy, could the public find out about troubled Navy programs at the same time policymakers become aware of troubled programs to fix them or save the taxpayer dollars by ending them?