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| Wired.com: Army Squeezes Soldier Blogs |
| 2007-05-02 |
| 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. |
| Posted by:Delphi2005 |
| #6 They are all volunteers. Volunteers who took an oath. That oath involves among other things, defending democracy, not necessarily participating in it. Appears to be way too much time on soldier's hands these days, the 9-5 rear area shuck and give "fobbit," it ain't my MOS syndrone for many, not all mind you. I think KBR is feeding they much too well. Appears AR 600-9 was trashed quite a while back. I've never seen such grossly overweight rear area slugs. Get off the computer, do some PT, and give that poor bastard outside the wire a break. There, I said it. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2007-05-02 20:01 |
| #5 You just knew this was going to happen. The military has never been known as a free, democratic operation. Big f**king duh! Did you spend an hour coming up with that? Too much real info escaping. Sometimes too much real info gets real people killed. Ever thought of that? I'm with P2K. Verify first. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2007-05-02 12:35 |
| #4 Hmmm...from the MSM. Verify first exactly what was directed, how and by whom. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2007-05-02 12:27 |
| #3 You just knew this was going to happen. The military has never been known as a free, democratic operation. Too much real info escaping. |
| Posted by: Woozle Elmeter2970 2007-05-02 11:13 |
| #2 On one hand I can see the Army's point about wanting to corral in leaks about operations. But I would add that only the Army has made this an order so the Airman, Sailors, and Marines are covered by the order. Also if a soldier really wants to get his mesage on the web he could do so by sending his message to a 3rd party. It's a bad rule that will hurt morale. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2007-05-02 10:32 |
| #1 Forgot to note, that there is more on this story at link. |
| Posted by: Delphi2005 2007-05-02 10:05 |