Saw this in my end of the work-day news round-up:
Army Squeezes Soldier Blogs, Maybe to Death
Noah Shachtman 05.02.07 2:00 AM
The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops' online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.
Military officials have been wrestling for years with how to handle troops who publish blogs. Officers have weighed the need for wartime discretion against the opportunities for the public to personally connect with some of the most effective advocates for the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq -- the troops themselves. The secret-keepers have generally won the argument, and the once-permissive atmosphere has slowly grown more tightly regulated. Soldier-bloggers have dropped offline as a result.
The new rules (.pdf) obtained by Wired News require a commander be consulted before every blog update.
I know a few of you out there have military family / friends / connections. I have a nephew with a myspace account (used mainly for IM'ing buddies and fiancee') and wonder how this will affect him. Opinions?
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2 comments:
Well, this sadly has been in effect for a long time, however most soldiers and friends/family either ignore it, don't know about it, or just dont follow it to the letter. It is true the soldiers should not give out any information. The OPSEC (operation security) was started to protect soldiers after the U.S.S Cole tragedy in October of 2000. If you aren't familiar with it-a ship was coming home with soldiers who told family and friends when they were coming home from sea and well everyone told everyone else and terrorists got wind and a sucide bomber attacked the ship killing 17 men and injuring 39 men. There are reasons for having OPSEC, because if it had been in effect 17 more men, like your nephew, would have been alive today still fighting for the right's of others and not laid to rest with heartbroken families. The government is not trying to "squeeze" the soldiers freedoms to prove a point, but merely is trying to reduce a tragic occurance from happening again. It is in action to protect the soldiers whether they want it or not. Mainly, the OPSEC is concerned with the soldier's personal information getting leaked out- such as social security, leave dates, deployment locations, when they will ship out, and where they are stationed on a base. Unless the soldier is required to tell someone something about leave dates, such as for a plane ticket or a ride home from the airport, the soldier shouldn't really say much of anything because it will endanger him and his surrounding comrades. Conversations between a soldier and his family should be kept to general information, although no one really wants to hear that or even follow it when they know better. I have a friend who's fiance' is in Iraq right now and they are not even allowed to put the entire name and rank on packages because the "bad guys" are starting to target individuals and killing them one by one. So, although it sounds silly and quite unfair it's something that could have saved many lives if it had been a forethought instead of afterthought.
Thanks for the thoughtful analysis. Maybe this will end up being one less thing for families to worry about -- although it will be harder to be more out of touch.
I cannot imagine how hard it was for families when the only communication possible with their soliders was a very infrequent letter.
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