This is clearly an attempt to gather evidence about the defense and the journalists involved. It is also likely that they are attempting to identify the source for the Navy Time's reporting.

Here's an analogy from the civilian world: An employee reports an OSHA violation. Their employer is fined and forced to spend money on fixing the violation. Angered by this, the employers management tries to find who reported them to OSHA.

They were caught doing something wrong, and now they are trying to identify who caught them doing it. The ethical response is to admit wrong doing and make it right, not intimidate your opponents. If you don't understand that I'm not sure there's much debate to be had.