Army blog memo
Not quite sure how I feel about this or if I can even give an opinion. Long story short, it’s a memo that states official and unofficial unit web sites must be registered with Multinational Forces Corps Iraq (MNCI). This means that if a company or platoon level leader wanted to keep families informed by maintaining a web site, he or she must go through an official registration process and inform their higher. However, it says that personal web logs do not need to register with MNCI, but pretty much gives this impression… “if you write it, we will read it.” Note: This memo only applies to deployed soldiers, not CONUS. In my opinion, it's just a matter of time before blogs are taken away from soldiers (in my opinion).
posted by Sminklemeyer @ 7:37 PM
12 Comments:
Smink -
I read this and as always there is a loophole (I linked it on my blog as well). You just have to read the memo well enough on how to get around it.
I agree that OPSEC and allowing the CAO notification process to work, I sure as shooting would not want to hear about my spouse being injured or otherwise from a blog, BUT the ones I read are respectful of both issues and post only after the incident has been cleared.
This to me (in my opinion) is a form of yellow journalism where they control the news to only portray what the had in mind. That and I am sure they would prefer that the blogs didn't swear, or complain about chain of command. So what? Upon occasion you don't agree with your boss, doesn't mean that you wouldn't an order just that you didn't like it.
Household6
I know it seems harsh, Casanova, but according to Dad, it's still a helluva lot better than it was in his day. Every letter he sent home was read by someone and ended up with blackouts or cutouts all over the place. Censorship was alive and well during WWII. Ever since you told me about your blog last year, I have gotten hooked on reading military blogs, because I get the real story of what's going on over there and what soldiers think and feel. Seth has talked about starting one when he's deployed this year so he can keep in touch with all of us. I hate that problems have cropped up with some military bloggers, because it causes a problem for all of them, not just the guilty parties. But, that's the way the military works isn't it? It's all about the team.
I think that all military blogs should be known about by the Soldier's command. Because not all Soldiers are taught like we are about what is and isn't appropriate to say. Having said that, I know that most Soldiers wouldn't be as lucky as I was to have an NCO who let me pretty much rant about whatever I wanted to. You know that not everyone in the military cares about the military like you do.
Smink-
I wonder if the blog "this is your war" has anything to do with the army's directive?
http://thisisyourwar.blogspot.com/
Dwitt
It would be a crime to stop the mil blogs. However, as a former Marine, I am aware of what is or is not appropriate. At times there have been some who posted information, though after the fact in some cases, that could be an opsec problem.
The information alone wasn't obvious, but to an enemy that reads our blogs too, it would not be hard for them to trace our troop movements by putting all the info together and analyzing it. So I encourage both the mil bloggers and those responding who are in the know to be very careful about this.
There have in fact been a rare few times that info about a family member was posted before the family was notified. But as I said that is rarely so. Most of those info slip ups were made in phone calls home out of shock, despair, etc.as were those on the blogs.
As this opsec issue has come into the open I notice on all the blogs that a very concerted effort on the blogs to be more careful in this respect. So the troops have begun to do their own censoring but in a way that shows respect and common sense and good judgement.
The precautions that need to be maintained ought to not affect creative style, etc. in any way.
There is another aspect to all of this. The enemy is also not above trying to identify family members at home and putting the troops' family members at risk here in the states. There have already been cases of people in the U.S. posting things these sleepers and other supporters consider offensive and being subjected to threats of bodily harm.
So please ensure that you protect both your identity and the identity of the troop deployed.
The government's fear is therefore three fold, protection of security issues, protection of troops, and protection of their stateside families. But there are none of us who I see that come here who wouldn't try hared to be careful here.
I am sure that once the military sees that we are all cooperating in that respect, there will be no problem with the blogs. So, we will all do our part, now let's see if my faith in the powers to be is nieve or justified.
Hi - We liked this post so much that we included it in "Blogsday," a series of blog posts read by actors over the radio. You can hear the entire hour here, on the blog for Open Source. (We're a public radio show, based in Boston and nationally broadcast, that is trying to capture the sound of the web.)
Thanks --
I saw that too, and posted it.
Army's Rules for Blogging from the Battlezone....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/paul-rieckhoff/armys-rules-for-blogging_2655.html
Sure hope none get shut down, I'd miss all of you...so much.
It would be a real shame if the milbloggers were taken away. I feel as if I get much better and more accurate information from the milbloggers than I ever do from the MSM.
Its a shame if they take away the ability for blogs.
Hi, came across your army sex blog, whilst surfing the net for sites related with a similar theme to mine army sex
I'm thinking about adding a army sex blog to my site, but I'm not sure if the the members of army sex would use it as they are only yong (12-16). They tend to prefer playing aracade games and chatting..... oh and confusing me with text speak ;)
Will call by again, bye for now.
Yo, This blog is pretty neat. You should check out mine sometime. It pretty much covers work at home moms related stuff.
http://blog.freetestandquiz.com
I agree with colorbars, as long as you are not posting anything classified, you are good to go. I also host a army blog which you can access by clicking the above link.
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