Reporters: US military blocking access to troops in Europe

By ASHRAF KHALIL
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Reporters covering the Pentagon and U.S. military are protesting what they say is a refusal to allow access to the thousands of U.S. troops being deployed in Europe in response to rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The Pentagon press corps say they have been uniformly denied opportunities to interview or embed with the troops, who are currently being deployed in Poland, Romania and Germany. They say such blanket restrictions are unprecedented during peacetime and extremely rare even in active warzones.  Pentagon press secretary John Kirby says the military takes seriously its decisions on providing media access and “We’re just not at a point now where we are able to provide that kind of access.”