Oops. U.S. Navy Sends Internal Memo About Dodging FOIA Requests to the Reporter They Were Trying to Thwart

Just a guess: Navy public affairs officer Robin Patterson, who
was in charge of responding to this Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) request, probably didn’t mean to send his strategy memo
about to how to dodge various aspects of the query for photos,
memos, and emails to the reporter who filed the request. (Click to
enlarge.)

Some choice excerpts: 

Again another “fish expedition” -just because they are media
doesn’t mean that the memos would shed light on specific government
activities….

DON2014F-0387: this one is specific enough that we may be able
to deny. However, I want to talk with the FBI, as they may have
“all emails during that time, in their possession.”…

Some of the requesters have already filed appeals – so the
administrative files need to be kept up-to-date.

None of this is particularly egregious, actually. It just shows
the generally oppositional and mildly grumpy attitude that is
typical of government responses to FOIA requests. And how valuable
Gmail’s Undo
Send button can be.

Via
Scott MacFarlane’s Twitter.