Official position · S-041
Responding to FOIA requests, the OSD stated that it was not possible to locate documents such as the 2023 memo that reportedly halted the practice, that the materials of the briefing to DNI Haines were not found (decision under appeal), and that AFOSI has no investigative documents on Yankee Blue.
Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and AFOSI – FOIA responses · Sep 16, 2025
Funding, secrecy, Congress
What it denies and what it leaves open
It merely denies having found the requested documents; it neither confirms nor denies that the practice described by the WSJ existed.
- Original words
no records of the kind you described could be identified
- Who disputes it
- The Pentagon itself had acknowledged the “pranks” in June 2025, and the WSJ attributes the account to AARO findings; critics of the WSJ use the absence of the memo to cast doubt on the reconstruction.
Sources
- Final OSD FOIA response 25-F-3514 (PDF) (primary source)
- The Black Vault, September 16, 2025: no documents on the “Yankee Blue” memo (analysis)
On this site
Documents 1
- FOIA: the Pentagon cannot find the 2023 memo that allegedly stopped the fake “Yankee Blue” briefings Original available
Where the claims come from 1
Open in the interactive archive The whole section: Denials and official positions
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