As we unearthed information about new incidents, we filed FOIA requests for related records. In response, we were often told that, unless we could provide names, especially those of the perpetrators, agencies couldn’t carry out searches for documents. When we provided names, some departments refused to release records, citing the privacy rights of the people we had identified. We learned that many cases were handled nonjudicially—essentially as personnel matters—and that those records were exempt from FOIA. Cases that ended in acquittal or dismissal were also exempt from FOIA, and the files often destroyed. Many of the most basic records that would be easily obtained in any civilian courthouse in America are beyond reach in the military-justice system.