Sorry for the lack of in-depth analysis on this, but I found this very disturbing. It certainly seems as if the Army is trying to censor its own soldiers. I'd love to get some feedback from our resident military bloggers.
In a new directive issued April 19th, the US Army is forbidding soldiers to post to blogs or send personal emails without first having the missives reviewed and OK'd by a superior officer, reports Wired magazine.
"This is the final nail in the coffin for combat blogging," said retired paratrooper Matthew Burden, editor of The Blog of War anthology. "No more military bloggers writing about their experiences in the combat zone. This is the best PR the military has -- it's most honest voice out of the war zone. And it's being silenced."
Army Regulation 530--1: Operations Security (OPSEC) restricts more than just blogs, however. Previous editions of the rules asked Army personnel to "consult with their immediate supervisor" before posting a document "that might contain sensitive and/or critical information in a public forum." The new version, in contrast, requires "an OPSEC review prior to publishing" anything -- from "web log (blog) postings" to comments on internet message boards, from resumes to letters home.
Failure to do so, the document adds, could result in a court-martial, or "administrative, disciplinary, contractual, or criminal action."
Active-duty troops won't be the only ones affected; the regulations also cover civilian contractors and even military families. However, many of the affected persons won't even be able to read the new regulations, as they are housed on the military's restricted-access intranet.
Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy is also blogging this, saying that the new regulation would:
. . . sharply restrict the ability of soldiers to participate in public life without supervision and authorization from superior officers.
. . . [encourage] Army personnel to view attempts by unauthorized persons to gather restricted information as an act of subversion against the United States.
Of course, passing on military secrets is already a serious crime, and rightly so. But these new regulations attempt to vastly expand what can be considered "sensitive" information that needs to be kept out of the public eye. The Wired article goes into detail about how military blogs are being seen as suspect by some, with military bloggers being banned from patrols, confined to base, forced to remove photos and personal information from their personal sites, and required to register their personal websites with a superior officer.
The Army even went so far as to set up the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell, telling military bloggers that
Big Brother is not watching you, but 10 members of a Virginia National Guard unit might be.
Sounds fairly Big Brother-ish, to me.
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Update: MotleyPatriot has looked at this reg in much more depth in this diary.