U.S. Air Force Censors Blogs

[Ordr]

Source: Daily Tech


The U.S. Air Force has adopted an alarming new censorship policy that effectively bans blogs and blogging by troops using Air Force computers and networks. The U.S. Army has required that bloggers register with their chain of command, but has encouraged them to write appropriate postings. The Air Force, which did not adopt such a policy, now has turned to a much more restrictive policy that bans any site using the word "blog" in its URL.


Read more: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=10901

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It seems to me that this isn't so much a censorship issue as much as a "don't browse unapproved sites at work" using their network issue.

[mike_c]

1. depends on whether they make the network available for personal...

...off-duty use. Like do airmen and women plug their personal computers into an AF network or log onto AF wireless? If the AF makes that same network available for personal, recreational use then it's censorship IMO. On the other hand, I agree that the AF has a right to limit employees' use of its facilities to "official" duties while at work.

on edit-- full disclosure, I am DUing on my office computer, using a state network. Of course, I'm not aware of any rules preventing this (and I'd be VERY surprised to discover such rules!).

[TwilightGardener]

2. My husband is in the AF, they are pretty strict about computer usage--

you shouldn't really be blogging on taxpayer-funded/provided computers, anyway. You should be a-workin'!

[BeHereNow]

3. Would it be because they don't want any leaks about Cheney's plans for Iran?

August 1, 2005 Issue
Copyright © 2005 The American Conservative


Deep Background


In Washington it is hardly a secret that the same people in and around the administration who brought you Iraq are preparing to do the same for Iran. The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States. Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing—that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack—but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections.

www.amconmag.com/2005_08_01/article3.html

BHN

[FalconsRule]

5. Well since they wouldn't have any idea

about any such plans, I'd say no.

[BeHereNow]

6. Hmmm?

Did you READ the Giraldi article?
People later resigned because they knew about it.
A 4 star General was forced into retirement
because of his objections to it.

Welcome to DU btw.
BHN

[FalconsRule]

7. How many 4-stars are writing blogs?

And which was FORCED into retirement?

[BeHereNow]

13. General Kevin Byrnes

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4307795

For a newbie, your tone is pretty confrontational.
Therefore, I suspect I am wasting my time in trying
to give you some background.

None the less, never say I didn't give you anything.

And I have no idea how many are blogging-
your question has nothing to do with my posts
on this thread, therefore, see ya.
BHN

[FalconsRule]

17. Good Lord

This was back in 2005! LMAO

[BeHereNow]

19. Are you paying attention?

Giraldi's story was published in August 2005.
Byrne was let go September of 2005.

Why are you laughing your ass off?
We have the archives for a reason.

What is so funny about the date?
Are you actually so unthinking as to imply that
the story is irrelevant because is happened
in 2005?

The PNAC doc was written in the 1990's.
Is that irrelevant to you too?
Is history just a laughing matter to you?

If so, DU may not be the right forum for you.

BHN

[SpiralHawk]

4. Mods is this a dupe? A similar thread was started a minute earlier

eom

[lanlady]

8. Air Force Blocks Access to Many Blogs

Source: Wired

Air Force Blocks Access to Many Blogs
By Noah Shachtman February 27, 2008 | 2:28:02

The Air Force is tightening restrictions on which blogs its troops can read, cutting off access to just about any independent site with the word "blog" in its web address. It's the latest move in a larger struggle within the military over the value -- and hazards -- of the sites. At least one senior Air Force official calls the squeeze so "utterly stupid, it makes me want to scream."

Until recently, each major command of the Air Force had some control over what sites their troops could visit, the Air Force Times reports. Then the Air Force Network Operations Center, under the service's new "Cyber Command," took over.

AFNOC has imposed bans on all sites with "blog" in their URLs, thus cutting off any sites hosted by Blogspot. Other blogs, and sites in general, are blocked based on content reviews performed at the base, command and AFNOC level ...

The idea isn't to keep airmen in the dark -- they can still access news sources that are "primary, official-use sources," said Maj. Henry Schott, A5 for Air Force Network Operations. "Basically ... if it's a place like The New York Times, an established, reputable media outlet, then it's fairly cut and dry that that's a good source, an authorized source," he said ...

AFNOC blocks sites by using Blue Coat software, which categorizes sites based on their content and allows users to block sub-categories as they choose.

Read more: http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/02/air-force-banni.html

[SpiralHawk]

9. "Don't forget,i am the Ultimate Cyber Commander decider." - Commander AWOL

"And I am pleased to report that under my brilliant, um, anti-blog 'leadership,' we are cracking down harder on all you free thinkers out there with your dangerous 'ideers' and shit, which might contaminate the brain waves of my, I mean the USA, Armed Forces, or anyone else. So Shut up and sit down."

- Commander AWOL

[Demeter]

10. They will Block the NYTimes NEXT Week!

Hope they got a service contract on that Chinese anti-Internet softweare they bought.

[TrogL]

11. That means they can't look at one of the most popular military blogs

Doonesbury's "the Sandbox" Milblog

http://gocomics.typepad.com/the_sandbox/

[Joey Liberal]

12. The Army blocks many "liberal" web sites, but

doesn't block Rush Limbaugh.

[CRK7376]

14. That happened to me

at Ft Jackson. DU was blocked at work and any other computer on post, including the post library. But Rush and Free Republic were accessible. I was hot over that issue, but would not win. Fortunately I would go off post with my laptop and connect at Panera Bread or one of the hot spots for wifi....

[saigon68]

15. Yes "Rush Limp-Balls Pill Boy" would be acessable

and also all those Christian Hateful right wing "Nut-Jobs"

[Stand and Fight]

16. I can vouch for that...

FreeRepublic is not blocked either, but it's arch nemesis, DU, is...

[FalconsRule]

18. DU is not blocked at the Pentagon... N/T

[goforit]

20. The airforce doesn't like what it hears......Watch out McCain.