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.
Protest the Military’s censorship policy toward soldier bloggers.
after the scandal of Abu Ghraib was revealed.
Next, they will ban all internet access and all email while tapping the phones of the troops.
Something that I have been wondering about since I saw this issue yesterday:
Does anything in the military’s regulations prevent soldiers from posting on other people’s sites and/or send email to people and have THEM post it? I am thinking especially of sites like BMT and dKos — where diaries and comments are included. Unless they cut off all internet access, I don’t see how they could keep soldiers from doing this, in which case, the truth will still out if the soldiers want to tell their stories.
Anyone know what the restrictions the military places on internet use in general?
When my husband was there they didn’t really have any rules of use. The internet was only up sporadically at first, towards the end of the tour they seemed to have it up and running better. Not all soldiers have access to the internet and I suppose that some Commanders have kept a tight rein, now they are all being told to rein everybody in. There isn’t any regulation stating that they can’t post on somebody else’s blog, but if they feel that that is a problem that is only a Commanders order away. Most likely what is going to happen is that internet service will go down in places for a variety of reasons having to do with equipment and programs crashing, and the systems won’t be repaired and financial/time constraints is the excuse they will give the complaining soldiers.
Thanks for that insight, Tracy — these are the first protracted wars fought with the Internet on hand, and it’s very interesting (in my more detached moments) to see how the free flow of information is affecting the public opinion here and abroad. I have been very surprised that there has been so much available in the past two years and was wondering when the military and the PTB (powers that be) were going to notice…
Question: being completely ignorant of military hierarchy, what does “the command” mean? What size of unit are we talking?
It is usually Lt Colonel’s who make the “big” command decisions, but if your Captain feels like you are all on the internet and getting distracted and didn’t scrub the toilets well enough it is his perogative to say, “No internet for you guys!” and his word is just as SOLID for the soldiers under him. The different Units and Companies are all of various sizes. Some Lt. Colonel’s have a few soldiers and some have 1,000s. I get confused because my husband is usually in the Air Cavalry and they have troops and units but the rest of the Army has Companies and Battalions. I’m not much help on that stuff. I think it is how I preserve my nonmilitary self, by deliberately not learning all that B.S.
Are they going to censor all their letters and phone calls home too?
I thought these soldiers were over there fighting for freedom. Apparently, it’s for someone else’s freedom since the first amendment doesn’t seem to apply beyond the US borders. I hope several of these soldiers come home and write tell all books once they’re discharged. Rumsfeld can’t keep them quiet forever.
people sit in Kuwait and listen in on the phone calls. They hang up the call if they think that anything inappropriate is being said or if you speaking to each other in some sort of “CODE”. I have a big fat mouth though at the beginning of all of this it was less fat and smaller, but they hung up on my husband and I about 10 different times when he was over there. Once we were discussing baking bread and I was having a bad day and really needed to just talk to him and hear his voice but I guess the whole baking bread thing had someone thinking that we were talking in “CODE” to each other so they hung us up. I found myself yelling to the dial tone, “but I am really talking about baking bread you motherfuckers!” So if you use the phone banks provided (and they aren’t free, you have to buy phone cards) your calls are censored. I believe that the gentleman who left the phone messages against the war said that he was making the calls from a cell phone.
I can’t believe this! Tracy, I am even more in awe of you (if that’s even possible?!) — I do not know how I would deal with my anger and frustration in that situation. When they “hung you up” could you call back? How long would it be until you could talk with him again?
This is so awful — if they are listening anyway, what the fuck difference does it make what you say, they have your names and numbers, etc. Jeeezus.
BTW — have you heard anything about whether or not they’ll be sending your husband back? How are the kiddos?
Daughter turned 16……Oh Boy! Set off fireworks last night with my 5 year old son, he thought that was excellent. In Alabama everybody sets off fireworks. This place cracks me up! There is an ordanance against fireworks but the whole place was exploding last night. They have big ass fireworks down here too. I’m talking the stuff that I used to have to go someplace to see, granted they cost a sum but if you want em down here in your backyard you can have em. God, guts, guns, and fireworks made this country great! Nothing yet about my husband going back. The Army is like this big computer in the sky in a way at times. I am preparing myself though. I need him here so they ain’t getting him without a fight!
I am wondering if you can use call features on aol and yahoo to talk to military members in Iraq. I have used the yahoo call feature to talk to my Iraq friend Diva in Baghdad. It’s free, there is also skype phone and another that I cannot remember that are strictly internet and you can also call land lines, by purchasing time, and is very much cheaper than normal phone lines..
I am hoping these soldiers will send emails to their families if they have blog problems that can be then posted in various places.
My Iraq friend is also friends with a lot of soldiers, by phone,or the internet, and she reports to me the same things these soldiers above are saying. Also she says the suicide rate is really high among soldiers there, according to what she has heard.
My husband said that they most likely wouldn’t be able to use the aol call feature. The computers are government computers if they use the internet service provided to them and aol isn’t on those computers. It is cool though that you have been able to talk to your friend over there. I have been very interested in what things are like for the civilians over there and everyone who provides info or blogs has helped me to understand how things are for everybody who is involved in and living in Iraq.
http://www.skype.com/ here is the link for skype phone which is free, computer to computer for any who may want to try it…You can call anywhere in the world with it..
I guess you would have to have your own laptop to use skype if you were a soldier but I think some do.
I guess you can pretty much say it is ‘crapola’ there for anyone, soldier or citizens.
Are they going to censor all their letters and phone calls home too?
Standard policy since at least WW II. Paul Reickhoff has a link to the Army’s blogging rules [.pdf].
During the Vietnam era our people brought their stories & pics home hidden in their baggage. Then again, reporters weren’t “imbedded”, or restricted in their movements to the extent they are now. That started with Powell in Gulf I.
Doesn’t the military have better things to do with their time? Like try to “win” this fucking war??? So babysitting blogs is now the priority for the DOD? WTF?
soldiers that didn’t care for the war were much more mellow, they felt willing to wait it out and fight it out to the best of their abilities and they hoped that their gut instincts were wrong. Well people’s gut instincts weren’t wrong and the divorce rate is shooting through the roof and some people are over there on their third tour now and they are tired and sick and broken and angry. They have to get this under control. They can’t have this guy shooting his mouth off like that because 20,000 soldiers will follow if they can and that number starts to get Americans upset. Americans go to sleep every night dreaming about their brave troops running fearlessly into the line of fire unafraid to die for their country and if the troops really aren’t feeling that way it messes everything up.
So instead of allowing people to vent on blogs that could get very little traffic, they are going to force people to bottle up their frustration and potentially explode in truly inappropriate ways. Nice going US military!
in the end. In another six months, if we are still there and things are bad to worse still I think that a Commander of sorts around Ramadi could possibly be killed by an “Iraqi” sniper. Some of those “Iraqi” snipers may get a couple of Commanders. It has happened before though we don’t like to talk about it, but it can certainly happen again.