Military now considers journalists threats to national security

[Newsjock]

http://www.cjrdaily.org/politics/is_this_what_the_army_thinks_o.php

It looks like it's official: the United States Army thinks that American reporters are a threat to national security. Thanks to some great sleuthing by Wired's "Danger Room" blogger Noah Shachtman, the Army's new operational security guidelines (OPSEC) hit the Web in a big way yesterday, and the implications they have for reporters -- who are grouped in with drug cartels and Al Qaeda as security threats to be beaten back -- are staggering.

... Shachtman reproduces a slide from the new "OPSEC in the Blogosphere," document, which lists and ranks "Categories of Threat." Under "traditional domestic threats" we find hackers and militia groups, while "non-traditional" threats include drug cartels, and -- yes -- the media. Just to put that into some perspective, the foreign "non-traditional threats" are listed as warlords, and Al Qaeda. In other words, the Army has figuratively and literally put the media in the same box as Al Qaeda, warlords, and drug cartels.

... Under the new rules, all Army personnel and DoD contractors are told to keep an eye on reporters and anyone seen speaking to the press, and that they should "consider handling attempts by unauthorized personnel to solicit critical information or sensitive information as a Subversion and Espionage Directed Against the U.S. Army (SAEDA) incident."

Steven Aftergood, senior research analyst at the Federation of American Scientists and director of the federation's Project on Government Secrecy, raises some red flags about the new regulations, writing that the "sensitive" information as defined in the manual includes "not just vital details of military operations and technologies but also documents marked "For Official Use Only" (FOUO) that may be exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act." In other words, as he says, "it follows that inquisitive members of the press or the public who actively pursue such FOUO records may be deemed enemies of the United States."

[irish.lambchop]

1. Should be sent to Michael Ware

currently reporting from Baghdad. Bet he'd find it interesting!

[Zywiec]

2. Did it specifically say American Media?

I'm sure there are media outlets from other countries that may not have our soldiers' best interests in mind.

[bigtree]

3. it goes with their stated view that information is warfare

it stands to reason that an administration so obsessed with selling their own propaganda would be threatened by opposing views which are published right as the minions in the Pentagon and WH are pushing initiatives such as the latest Iraq escalation.

[Karenina]

4. NOW??? Bitte...

They've been shooting journalists for YEARS.

[fed-up]

5. "they" already tried to take out that Italian journalist- nt

[DawnIsis]

6. Aren't the rights of the press constitutionally protected?

So how can the press be labeled as a threat when their freedom is constitutionally mandated?

[Newsjock]

7. Constitution, schmonstitution

Oh, stop, you're makin' me laff. :)

[genie_weenie]

8. I believe this was targeted at shutting up

the troops who are actually in harms way. Also their families. After all you can't have eyewitnesses ruining the excellent propaganda weave of the Regime.

Paetrus says the terror insurgency is in the last throes of knowing whether the next six surges will foment an acceptable amount of violence in a democracy.

[Toots]

9. If the Media is now our enemy can we shoot on sight?

:shrug: Maybe it is just the "Liberal Media"

[youthere]

10. First they have to stop the soldiers from writing home..

Then they have to get rid of the journalists...it's the only way they can actually sell to the American public that the surge is working.

[OneBlueSky]

11. don't military personnel take an oath to "preserve, protect and defend . . .

the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic?" . . . and doesn't that mean all of the constitutionally protected rights, like freedom of the press? . . .

I doubt that most of these folks have ever even read the Constitution, or know what it says . . .

[Oeditpus Rex]

12. Well, what the hell?

Half the people at DU think reporters are paid Bushco whores.

Poor bastards can't win for losing. :shrug: