More than a year after promising on national television to release his full military record, Senator Kerry of Massachusetts authorized the Navy last month to provide his service file to selected news organizations.

However, Mr. Kerry has not given the military permission to disclose the records to the general public, fueling continued speculation by the senator’s critics that he is attempting to hush up some aspect of his service.

The news organizations that have seen the latest collection of documents reported that there was little new information aside from a copy of Mr. Kerry’s Yale University transcript showing that the future politician received some mediocre marks.

The new release was prompted by a privacy waiver form, known as an SF-180, that Mr. Kerry signed on May 20, according a spokesman for the senator, David Wade.

A Navy spokesman, Lieutenant Commander Daniel Hernandez, said the waiver applied only to the Boston Globe and did not authorize release of Mr. Kerry’s records to the public.

“Kerry controls the release of his records,” Commander Hernandez said yesterday. “You have to talk to his office.”

The senator also agreed to allow the Los Angeles Times to see his full record, Mr. Wade said yesterday. The spokesman did not respond to a question about why Mr. Kerry did not execute a broader release to all press organizations and the public. Asked whether the senator would permit release of the records to The New York Sun, Mr. Wade said, “The issue is over.”

In a written statement, Mr. Kerry insisted that openness about his past was a hallmark of his presidential bid.

“I’m proud of my record in Vietnam, and honored to have served my country. I am also proud of the fact that my campaign provided unprecedented access to my military and military medical records both during my campaign and now months after it has ended,” the senator said. “The facts still speak for themselves and as these records prove, once again the right wing is wrong.”

Mr. Kerry told the Globe that he delayed signing the release because he was reluctant to placate his political opponents. “I felt strongly that we shouldn’t kowtow to them and their attempts to drag their lies out,” he said.

Some of Mr. Kerry’s most ardent supporters said they were mystified by his handling of the military records flap. “Why the hell didn’t he release these documents earlier?” a political consultant, Markos Moulitsas, wrote. On his popular liberal blog, DailyKos.com, Mr. Moulitsas said the delayed release was irritating because the new records undermine the allegations being made against Mr. Kerry during the campaign. “The incompetent way that matter was handled knows no bounds,” the political counsultant opined.

One of Mr. Kerry’s leading critics during the campaign and during his years as an anti-war activist, John O’Neill, said yesterday that glaring gaps remain in the senator’s military record.

“This is not a complete release of all records, demonstrably not,” Mr. O’Neill said in an interview. “It’s the fourth time Kerry has made a complete release of his military records.”

Mr. O’Neill, who acknowledged he has not seen any of the newly released papers, said the records still appear to be silent about what Mr. Kerry did during his period of service in the reserves. “There are not records telling us what was Kerry’s status between when he left military service with the Navy, in 1971, and 1978,” the Kerry critic said.

Mr. O’Neill also said there is no explanation for why Mr. Kerry’s decorations – a bronze star, a silver star, and three purple hearts he received during his tour as a boat captain in Vietnam – were reissued in 1985.

The latest release also appears to do nothing to resolve a dispute about whether Mr. Kerry came under enemy fire on December 2, 1968. While medical records show he was treated for a minor shrapnel wound – the basis for his first purple heart – other veterans recall that some on the mission believed the injury came from friendly fire or an accident.

“There is no hostile fire report or personnel injured report. … The absence of those records speaks very loudly as to what actually occurred,” said Mr. O’Neill, who helped organize an anti-Kerry group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Some credit, or blame, the group’s television ads for sinking Mr. Kerry’s presidential bid.

Mr. O’Neill said Mr. Kerry only requested the records from the Navy Personnel Command and not from a central repository of military personnel files maintained by the National Archives, the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.

However, the Navy spokesman, Commander Hernandez, said the latest release does include the papers from St. Louis. “It’s the whole record,” he said.

There are no reports that the new records give any indication that Mr. Kerry was dishonorably discharged, as some military legal experts inferred from earlier disclosures. Mr. Wade categorically denied yesterday that the senator was ever disciplined or received anything other than an honorable discharge.

The new disclosure seemed to stoke the anger of Mr. Kerry’s allies toward those who attacked the senator’s military record last year.

“It was a despicable thing,” the coordinator of veterans’ outreach on Mr. Kerry’s campaign, John Hurley, said in an interview yesterday. He called the attacks “specious and dishonest.”

“John Kerry’s service was unquestioned by any person of any integrity whatsoever,” Mr. Hurley said.

Mr. Hurley faulted Mr. O’Neill for saying in an interview that he was disappointed the new records contained nothing that threw Mr. Kerry’s character into question.

“If he were searching for truth, he’d be very grateful,” Mr. Hurley said, alluding to the name of Mr. O’Neill’s organization.

Mr. O’Neill said Mr. Hurley misunderstood the comment about Mr. Kerry’s records. “I was disappointed he did not make a full release,” the Kerry critic said.

Mr. Kerry promised to release his full military file during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in April 2004. In fact, the senator insisted that the files were available to anyone who came to his office in Washington, D.C. The following day, a reporter was turned away by Mr. Kerry’s staff. Eventually, hundreds of pages were released to the public and posted on Mr. Kerry’s campaign Web site.

In January 2005, after the senator’s defeat at the polls, he promised to sign a privacy waiver that would allow the Navy to release his full file. He also disclosed that some additional records received from the Navy before the election were not released. “At the last moment, they sent some more stuff, which had some things that weren’t even relevant to the record,” Mr. Kerry said, again on “Meet the Press.” “I’m going to sit down with them and make sure that they are clear and I am clear as to what is in the record and what isn’t in the record and we’ll put it out. I have no problem with that.”

While Mr. Kerry’s aides blamed the senator’s critics for harping on the issue, Mr. O’Neill said Mr. Kerry’s qualified and incomplete responses were responsible for the continuing questions.

“I honestly wish he would simply give a general release so we could all go about our business. The election is over. This business about ‘I’ve released it but I haven’t released it’ is tiresome,” Mr. O’Neill said.