This may be the end of this blog
And MilBlogging as a form of blogging…
Per the new Army Regulation 530-1, all Army personnel must:
[Removed to conform to the regulation's FOUO status]
Emphasis mine. According to this, this post I’m writing right now should have been cleared with my “supervisor” and an OPSEC Officer before I could hit the “Publish” button. You could make the case that I’m not even allowed to send an email without it being reviewed, although I’m inclined to believe they are referring to copies of emails.
On one hand, I understand why the Army is doing this. They’re trying to clamp down on sensitive information being broadcast, literally, to the world.
On the other, I believe they are making a grave propaganda mistake here. As a group, there’s probably no greater supporters of the Global War on Terror than milbloggers. Not all, mind you, but the majority. We are some of the first people to jump on inaccuracies in the media about this war and the first to provide some level of good news about what’s going on over there.
I understand the Army wants to control the types of information getting out. I know they know of this blog, as I’ve received emails in the past nicely telling me to remember OPSEC. I also know they have a whole team of web surfers scouring the internets looking for milbloggers giving out sensitive information. I understand all that.
But cut us off, and there’s going to be a backlash. I know soldiers give up some rights when they put on the uniform, but I should be able to express my First Amendment rights as an individual - as long as I’m not giving out sensitive information and belittling my leadership, which I haven’t. Everything I’ve talked about here has been open source and will remain so as long as I am doing this.
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wondered what this was going to do to ya….
This has to be Pentagon PR suicide in the making.
While I understand their ‘point’ ~ we’ve all seen the violators (one of the most anti-Bush sites is written by a soldier in Afghanistan) and we’ve seen things that won’t harm anyone taken down because it ‘upset’ someone.
So, Mr Pentagon man, if you are reading this - HUGE MISTAKE.
Milblogs are the only good news you have coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan that don’t sound like propaganda.
not sure you should link to FOUO document - seems like an issue in and of itself.
As soldiers we have lost yet another freedom