Cross posted at Daily Kos)
It’s not just Leonard Clark, folks. Now the Military command in Iraq is requiring all soldiers who blog to register their blogs with their commanders or face punitive action:
Friday, July 01, 2005
Final Note
This is one of my last posts I will put on my blog. I don’t intend to convert this blog to a political blog. It will just stay unchanged for a long time for maybe some historian interested in getting information from soldiers from the front has access to my site.
Another blow to the military blog community. A 3 star General approved an “order” that all milbloggers have to tell their chain of command about their blog. This is very unfortunate obviously that alot of people want to see the soldier’s side and plus see alot of what is going on that the news cannot and will not cover. I think the news papers do a better job at revealing US military tactics and strategy to insurgents than our blogs could ever do. I, and many other people, even many civilians I know say there shouldn’t be any reporters embedded with US troops or that they don’t even belong there.
More after the fold . . .
What order you ask? Well it’s all described here in an Army Times article (hat tip to Kossacks donkef and jimstaro for posting about this in the this thread):
Defiance Of “Punitive Policy” Expressed
He plans to keep blogging, but not register. “I’m taking a risk by doing it, but I don’t think that I can be objective if the Army knows who I am and can censor me at any time,” he wrote in an e-mail exchange.
July 04, 2005
By Joseph R. Chenelly, Army Times staff writer
Commanders want to know who is blogging from Iraq, and a new rule says soldiers have to ‘fess up.
A policy for all service members under command of Multi-National Corps-Iraq states that anyone who owns, maintains or posts to a Web site or Web log must formally notify his chain of command.
All service members who fall under MNC-I must register their sites or blogs or risk facing punitive action, under the policy signed in April by Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, MNC-I commander.
The new rules have had an effect on some military bloggers. At least a few have shut down, saying they’d rather stop blogging than reveal their full identity.
“I could keep going but under these circumstances, it would be a lie,” wrote a soldier blogger who goes by Red2Alpha on www.thisisyourwar.blogspot.com, suggesting the soldier wouldn’t be able to post his true feelings if he had to tell his higher ups about his blog.
Although policy states that soldiers don’t have to submit each post for review before it goes online, the rules require commanders to regularly review each site maintained by a soldier under their charge.
“Registering would eliminate my anonymity and thus my candor,” one blogger who doesn’t want to be identified wrote from Iraq to Army Times. “I would be tactful and continue to maintain (operational security), regardless, but constantly wondering if my chain of command is reading my words and misinterpreting them would ruin the whole experience and affect my writing.”
This blogger said he will stop posting immediately to avoid violating the policy.
Another soldier, who goes by “Six” on his blog, www.watchyoursix.blogspot.com, isn’t in Iraq yet. But he is slated to deploy soon. He plans to keep blogging, but not register.
“I’m taking a risk by doing it, but I don’t think that I can be objective if the Army knows who I am and can censor me at any time,” he wrote in an e-mail exchange. “I work hard to make sure that I don’t compromise operational security, but I know the Army won’t trust me to make that judgment.”
According to the new rules, major subordinate commands are responsible for maintaining and providing their division with a list of soldier bloggers in their command.
The final point on the policy states “this is a punitive policy. Service members in violation to this policy may be subject to adverse action or punishment under the UCMJ.”
It is unclear how well MNC-I will be able to police the regulation.
“That depends on how many resources the (MNC-I) has to throw at the issue,” said the blogger behind www.blackfive.net. This blogger goes only by his first name, Matt. “For example, the policy calls for MSC commanders to review blogs every quarter for appropriate (or nonappropriate) content. That seems like a long time to wait between reviews when you’re dealing with information that’s immediately accessible.
Let me emphasize this quote:
The Military has known about soldier blogs for some time now. Christ, they’ve been in Iraq for over 2 years and the war on Terror started when? Oh yeah: September 11, 20001, the date that everything changed.
So I don’t buy the “operational security” angle. As the blogger at bootsontheground.com noted the embedded press probably do more to expose tactics and strategy than any military blogger. Every day we are given another story about a new offensive in some town or other. The military wants that to get out.
What they don’t want to get out is the truth about this war, a truth that many military bloggers had been exposing the folks back home too. Nor do they want dissent in the ranks publicized. Doesn’t fit the official line that all the troops buy in to Bush’s mantra that we are bringing liberation and freedom to an oppresssed people.
This isn’t about security, it’s about censorship. It’s about intimidation. What soldier in his or her right mind is going to publish his or her true feelings and opinions about the war, the President or any other political issue when they know their commander is looking over their shoulder.
Some will try to evade the restrictions, and some will defy them, but most will be like Boots on the Ground: they will stop blogging from Iraq, and we will lose another means to discern the truth about what they are going through.
Bush and the Pentagon want to control the media and thereby control what we think and feel about this misadventure. Because ultimately this censorship of our soldiers is aimed at you and me right here at home.
I say let’s not let them get away with it! Support the Troops! Contact your Congressional representatives and Senators. Write a letter to your editor condemning this. Contact every media outlet for which you have an email, snail mail address or phome number.
Let’s put the pressure on these bastards. Our troops are fighting and dying in Iraq. The least we can do is to stand up for their right to tell us what they think about the war in which they are engaged in Iraq, the war that’s killing and maiming their comrades.
