The U.S. military is banning and blocking employees from visiting The Intercept in an apparent effort to censor news reports that contain leaked government secrets.
According to multiple military sources, a notice has been circulated to units within the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps warning staff that they are prohibited from reading stories published by The Intercept on the grounds that they may contain classified information. The ban appears to apply to all employees—including those with top-secret security clearance—and is aimed at preventing classified information from being viewed on unclassified computer networks, even if it is freely available on the internet. Similar military-wide bans have been directed against news outlets in the past after leaks of classified information.
A directive issued to military staff at one location last week, obtained by The Intercept, threatens that any employees caught viewing classified material in the public domain will face “long term security issues.” It suggests that the call to prohibit employees from viewing the website was made by senior officials over concerns about a “potential new leaker” of secret documents.
The directive states:
We have received information from our higher headquarters regarding a potential new leaker of classified information. Although no formal validation has occurred, we thought it prudent to warn all employees and subordinate commands. Please do not go to any website entitled “The Intercept” for it may very well contain classified material.
As a reminder to all personnel who have ever signed a non-disclosure agreement, we have an ongoing responsibility to protect classified material in all of its various forms. Viewing potentially classified material (even material already wrongfully released in the public domain) from unclassified equipment will cause you long term security issues. This is considered a security violation.
A military insider subject to the ban said that several employees expressed concerns after being told by commanders that it was “illegal and a violation of national security” to read publicly available news reports on The Intercept.
“Even though I have a top secret security clearance, I am still forbidden to read anything on the website,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject. “I find this very disturbing that they are threatening us and telling us what websites and news publishers we are allowed to read or not.”
(If you work for the military or the government and have received similar instructions, please let us know.)
On Monday, staff within the Navy, Army, and Marine Corps separately confirmed that they could not access The Intercept from work computers. Two Navy sources said that if they tried to view the site they were served with the insignia of the Strategic Command and a warning that they were “attempting to access a blocked website” that had been barred for “operational reasons” by a Department of Defense filtering system.
An Army spokesman had not responded to a request for comment at the time of this article’s publication. Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Eric Flanagan admitted that Marine Corps staff were notified “as a precautionary measure that theintercept.com may contain classified information.” The Navy and Air Force both referred requests for comment to the Department of Defense.
In an emailed statement, Defense Department spokeswoman Lt. Col. Valerie Henderson said that she had not been able to establish whether the DoD had been the source of “any guidance related to your website.” Henderson added, however, that “DoD personnel have an obligation to safeguard classified information. Classified information, whether made public by unauthorized disclosure, remains classified until declassified by an appropriate government authority. DoD is committed to preventing classified information from being introduced onto DoD’s unclassified networks.”
Earlier this month, after the publication of two Intercept stories revealing classified details about the vast scope of the government’s watchlisting program, Reuters reported that “intelligence officials were preparing a criminal referral” over the leaks.
The ban on The Intercept appears to have come in the aftermath of those stories, representing the latest in a string of U.S. military crackdowns on news websites that have published classified material. Last year, the Army admitted that it was blocking parts of The Guardian’s website after it published secret documents from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. In 2010, WikiLeaks and several major news organizations were subject to similar measures after the publication of leaked State Department diplomatic files.
Flanagan, the Marine Corps spokesman, told The Intercept that The Washington Post was also blocked by some military agencies last year after it published documents from Snowden revealing covert NSA surveillance operations.
“Just because classified information is published on a public website, that doesn’t mean military people with security clearance have the ability to download it,” Flanagan said.
Better they recruit robots
As the DJ played by Robin WIlliams in the movie Good Morning Vietnam astutely pointed out to his superior officer, “Your in more need of a blow job than any white man I ever knew” or words to that effect and ones that apply to whomever gave such silly instructions.
If you have invested thousands of dollars in teaching a person to kill on command you don’t give him a chance to think differently from yourself!
Well now exactly WHO at the top end doesn’t want their own even high ranking minions to know just what is really going down?
How would the Generalisimo know what The Intercept publishes, unless he has violated the terms of his security clearance by visiting The Intercept? I guess he’ll have to self-arrest.
Assuming for the sake of argument that the government has the right to suppress speech by classifying everything as a government secret, isn’t the prohibition against reading any part of The Intercept because maybe perhaps some part of it is verboten violate the 1st Amendment on overbreadth grounds?
This is because they’re bound to UCMJ penalty if they see material that they’re not authorized to see. They cant realistically prevent anybody from going to your website, obviously… but they’re still obligated to potentially throw people in the brig for unauthorized access to secret documents. This memo is to protect them from their own laws.
“Three things cannot long be hidden :
The sun, the moon, the truth” Buddha
“If wars can be started by lies.
They can be stopped with the truth” Julian Assange
‘One basic truth can be used as a foundation for a mountain of lies, and if we dig down deep enough in the mountain of lies, and bring out that truth, to set it on top of the mountain of lies; the entire mountain of lies will crumble under the weight of that one truth, and there is nothing more devastating to a structure of lies than the revelation of the truth upon which the structure of lies was built, because the shock waves of the revelation of the truth reverberate, and continue to reverberate throughout the Earth for generations to follow, awakening even those people who had no desire to be awakened to the truth.’—Delamer Duveru
It appears that even ‘The Guardian’ nowadays (via their online moderators) are in high gear censoring comments that may potentially cause others to question and/or investigate the U.S., U.K. or EU’s current political rhetoric with regards to Russia and the Ukraine.
Apparently, they didn’t like the fact that I questioned why it was that one of their journalists (Shaun) supposedly saw a column of Russian tanks proceeding towards and actually crossing over the border into the Ukraine in the dead on night via some obscure dirt road surrounded by barbed wired (which Kiev claimed to have destroyed hours later) yet no photographic and/or video proof was, or has ever been, produced that could substantiate either of their claims.
Since then, The Guardian moderators have felt a need to place any of my future commentaries to be “pre-moderated”. Apparently, if anyone ever questions the official political narrative and can provide historical context and/or documentary proof that refutes the rhetoric, they don’t want to others to know about it.
In order to protect the source you hopefully have altered the email analogically. Otherwise it absolutely can be restored.
Boomerang 101, 404, 901, 909………..Info Psyops cavalry measure tactic 603….Ping General Allen….
Exactly!
the truth is so powerful that it could radiate…
enough genuineness and strength…
to transform and maintain…
an about-face!…
On a related topic, the US gets another lesson on it’s inability to protect its own security personnel’s personal information, as well as the inefficiencies of out-sourcing the protection of the same to private corporations, or “contractors”:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/23/us-usa-security-contractor-cyberattack-idUSKBN0GM1TZ20140823
Thanks for the misinformation, I mean, *information*.
Wonderful. Now the government has a Great Firewall like China.
Something about closing the stable door after the horse has bolted?
As some officer commented in the movie ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ – military and intelligence is an oxymoron.
So… they tell their employees that they can’t view the same news that 7 billion other people can? That makes no sense. As far as I know documents lose all classification when they hit public domain.
This is a case of self-incrimination. I refuse to incriminate myself by incriminating myself; however, I am a retired liar. I left active duty in 1975. I gave up lying for a living. Now, I just lie for the pure pleasure of knowing that what I say is not right. I no longer am commanded or ordered to lie. Come, to think of it, I was never required by the military to lie. It was built into the Officer Efficiency Report. An error is correctable, but a mistake goes with you to the grave. Acceptable error is plus and minus two standard deviations from the reference mean. The coefficient of variation is in percent of the value of the arithmetic mean based on one standard deviation. SD is fixed, but CE is a measure of accuracy and precision with proper considerations.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
(In the meantime I guess it is alright to enjoy laughing too.)
Col. Jessep: You want answers?
Lt. Kaffee: I want the truth!
Col. Jessep: You can’t handle the truth!
So the DoD thinks it can make a leak disappear by telling its employees not to look at it?
Incredible. I’m reminded of the Ravenous Bug Blatter Beast of Traal from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: a creature so mind-bogglingly stupid that it thinks that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you.
Hilarious Phil! I’ll buy ya a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, should we ever meet!
You are in good company. My blog is also banned at Guantanamo :
Gtmoblog.blogspot.com
I work at West Point and I just checked access to the Intercept via my VPN. No connection on repeated attempts. Standard Firefox message saying site might be down etc, but not DOD insignia or somesuch.
Check this out for an interesting kind of (state-run or backed) social media psy-op on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giOvj8-s8oU&feature=youtu.be
In this case, running a totally pro-govt narrative in respect of the situation in Ferguson.
Hardly anything is “real” anymore … it is all propaganda-bots and an all-out information-war.
Which makes it increasingly tiring and time-consuming for the average person to get to “the real.”
But something like this should at least alert people to the multi-pronged nefariousness that is going on.
*SIGH*
Maybe they don’t want the malware boomeranging
What should i write about THAT?……ROFL.
Military goes madness.
None of what the CIA, NSA, or DoD does would be happening with approval of Barack Obama. Let’s stop pretending any of these have gone rogue. They haven’t. They continue to serve at the direction of US Presidents. Clapper and Brennan have not been fired because Obama wants them to stay.
I think you are all pretty naive. I believe when ever a new president sits down in the oval office there is a briefing about what they can do, who their real boss(es) are and who really runs the world and then they have to work within that framework of deception. So, maybe they are in charge or are given the illusion of being in charge…no matter who the president is.
Mr. Steinberger, on the notion that the buck stops with the president, Obama in this case:
Let me say first that since his signing statement on New Years Eve 2012 of the NDAA, upholding the Act’s suspension of Habeas Corpus, there is little I can say in the man’s defense.
Still, the presidency, no less Mr Obama, is inescapably responsive to a juggernaut of powerful interests that are not necessarily his own.
Wincing at my own cynicism, I am reminded of a response made, ostensibly by a ranking CIA officer ,to the question “Who Killed Kennedy?” – “It was suicide. He thought he was President.”
Agreed Ric. I’m disillusioned that the Pres has seemingly embraced many of the programs initiated by Bush and Cheney.
I disagree. To me it seems it does not matter who is president of the US, they serve only as a puppet for a government gone rogue.
Seems the DoD is in dire need of some adult supervision.
If you tell someone they’re not suppose to view something while at work, when they get home they’re free to do it in the privacy of their homes. The DoD/NSA can’t control peoples actions when on their free time and using their own dime … something about the 4th Amendment that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. They’d have to know in advance a person was going to go to the web site … unless the FISA court grants excessive fishing trips without cause.
If they were smart … both and oxymoron and mutual exclusive … they would use their NSA intellect to add filters their networks that blocks any access to the said web pages and any redirects. And if anyone complains, then they can question why they feel they need access.
Au contrare!
If they can command you to pee in a cup to see what you do off hours, how much more of a stretch is it to track your other activities when of the clock?.
I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments, but unfortunately that ship sailed long ago…
The only way to stop this stupidity is to fire James Clapper (The Liar) and about 20 of the top level bureaucrats at NSA and then start at the CIA by firing John Brennan. Obviously all members of the military can read all of this top secret information on their own I-pads.
You kinda misunderstand the problem here. It’s not about preventing anyone from reading anything. Nobody is as delusional as to think that that would work. This is about keeping people from acting upon the knowledge they might gain.
You (as in: a member of the military) can enjoy the independant in your spare time as much as you like, but should you get the idea of questioning your superiors based on the documents, you can no longer deny having read them. Since you were ordered not to read them, thats a case of insubordination. For that you may get fired at best and put on trial at worst.
In other words: You can choose between ignoring that your commanding staff is rotten to the core or you can continue with your career.
Well said Patrick. I think that is exactly the summary of this problem! To all the fearless journalists out there “Keep doing what you’re doing, it’s your job” I am inspired by people wanting to spread the truth, I am truly truly inspired. Thank you!
theintercept can become bigger than google + facebook +twitter if it can keep military, police and con-Fusion Center employees off, and in the dark. Yes, we can mushroom manage military intelligence. More compost!!
So, let’s stop pretending and get right to it. As an Army Vet who served for 9 years to include one tour in Iraq let me just say that in most every facet of military life there is Orwellian tactics at work. For instance, in the US Army we are required to memorize various “creeds” or “codes” and recite them on demand. They all make reference to what they call the seven “army values” – these I can only describe as one of the most blatantly nefarious applications of doublespeak I have ever seen outside of Orwell’s 1984. Lets take a look at these so-called values:
LOYALTY – Anyone who has served understands that this version of “loyalty” only works from the bottom up if it ever works at all. A soldier of a lower rank must remain loyal to all his superiors- and we all come to fully understand that we will be the scapegoat should our superiors need to cover their own asses, or should a fellow soldier have the opportunity to throw us under the bus to save themselves. Abu Ghraib ring a bell?
DUTY – The military definition of duty is basically this: Shut up. Do as you are told. Do not ask questions. Do not apply morality to your decisions. DO NOT THINK —- DO what you are told, regardless of weather or not you think the action is right or wrong.
RESPECT – Here’s another good one – they like to act like this is the “golden rule” , the “do unto others…” idea. Again, the opposite is often the case – as I watched leaders mock, ridicule, and reduce young men and women who volunteered to do this job into apathetic, and at times, suicidal desperate people who begin to believe that they are as worthless as their leadership tells them they are on a DAILY BASIS. It is relentless psychological abuse focused on soldier who are labeled as targets usually early on during their time with the unit – and it rarely ever lets up on these unfortunate men and women.
SELFLESS SERVICE – The Army definition is “put the welfare of the nation, the Army and your subordinates before your own.” In my 9 years in the Army – I think I met 3 leaders at the very most who ever put the welfare of their subordinates before their own self interest. And, just so everyone knows, contrary to what the embedded media would want us to think, we didn’t run around in Iraq telling each other how happy we were to be helping our “nation”. We didn’t go to Iraq for our nation, in fact, our going likely but our nation in more jeopardy. We all knew that we were to put the welfare of Haliburton contractors, KBR Contractors, Blackwater Contractors, and the public bullshit story that had to be maintained to the press before our own. Our sacrifice was for profit, not for protection.
Honor – In March of 2003, I was in a support unit that followed behind 3rd ID from Kuwait all the way into Baghdad. We drove by the aftermath of first units as they traveled through the country. I saw more unarmed men, women and children killed than anyone who even remotely posed a threat on that drive – more innocent people murdered than any combatant by a factor of 10 easily. Does that sound honorable to you?
INTEGRITY – More lying goes on withing the ranks of the military amongst themselves on a daily basis than you could possibly imagine. When communicating with anyone who is not military, you can be sure that most of what you are being told is a complete work of fiction. I worked with a Psychological Operations team for a bit in Kuwait – and they have mastered the art of mass manipulation and deception. They are as comfortable using this in a foreign land on a declared enemy or on our own Military if that is what is called for – or on our own citizens within our own borders as well. The military had ZERO integrity.
PERSONAL COURAGE – If you have read all of this – I will just copy and paste what the US Army says about this particular value on their own web-site – so you can see their doublespeak at work:
“Face fear, danger or adversity (physical or moral). Personal courage has long been associated with our Army. With physical courage, it is a matter of enduring physical duress and at times risking personal safety. Facing moral fear or adversity may be a long, slow process of continuing forward on the right path, especially if taking those actions is not popular with others. You can build your personal courage by daily standing up for and acting upon the things that you know are honorable.”
– Damn that sounds almost like something Gandhi or MLK would have advocated. See how well that idea worked out for Chelsea Manning?
The military is loves to tell their people what to do – even down to the most mundane or, in this case, paranoid and delusional restrictions. I’ve seen Colonels relish in punishing a soldier who “broke the rules” – and the punishment is often harsh, career ruining and life shattering. DO NOT join the military. If someone to care about wants to – stop them.
Heh Dean, glad you out of the service and speaking out…… but why did you stay 9 years?
Germaine Greer said as much in the chapter, “Masculinity”, in her 2000 book, The Whole Woman.
Well put, and I thought a lot about that during my time in the Army Reserve as well. Especially the “Respect” part, it is so ironic to see this touted as an army value when you see how so many military members act racist towards the nationals of the country they are in or how you get completely looked down upon if you are medically afflicted in any way. What is also BS is how you’re made to memorize the “Army values”, but you are expected to always “put the mission first”, no matter if it breaks all of them.
I always got the vibe that the “Army values” are simply there because some consulting firm was hired for too many taxpayer dollars to tell the Army that “successful companies often have their values clearly stated”.
Notice that banning The Intercept before they publish classified information is punishment for pre-crime. If The Intercept doesn’t sue, I’m not going to be happy.
There’s something more effective than a lawsuit…an open ridicule campaign against the head-shed, or, as one USN vet referred to the Pentagon, ‘The Fumble Fort’.
In Canada, a chum of mine referred to National Defence Headquarters as ‘Fantasyland on the Rideau’.
Pentagon sometimes called “The Puzzle Palace.”
NSA (Ft Mead) = “Sneaky Pete Command”
O/T subject. To whom this may concern. This is to let people know something very nefarious is going on in regards to comment sections across the internet, especially well known news org sites. Here is the deal.
Two days ago, I registered at a news site to post a comment in regards to the Ferguson. After writing my comment, I hit “submit”, and was immediately informed by virtue of a big orange field with the statement..YOU HAVE BEEN BLOCKED. Having never posted a comment there before, I sent an email to the site mods asking why, of which I haven’t received an answer yet. But here’s the issue.
As that was my first morning attempt at commenting, I went on to the next story on another site. Again, after commenting/submit..the same orange field with YOU HAVE BEEN BLOCKED appeared again. Well, I had previously posted there, and thought maybe this was a coincidence, so I moved on. Again, and again, and again and again…each site I went to, mostly new, and mostly Discus powere..I was BLOCKED. Over 30, unconnected, blogs and news sites within 24 hours blocked me. Now, I’m not one who get’s worked up over things that may have an obvious reason, but this one is beginning to look like the work of a hacker or something. I’ve contacted every site, and Discus, but no information has come back at this point. As this site is still working for me, I thought I might ask if anyone else has experienced mass Blocking across multiple sites. As of today, it’s still happening. 7 blocks this morning alone. This is beyond coincidence, and actually suggests NSA or some other gov handiwork. Am I alone? If not, perhaps TI ought to investigate. I only received a singly reply to all the emails I’ve sent so far. This tells me something too.
Ok, carry on.
” I only received a singly reply to all the emails I’ve sent so far. “
What was the response, and from what site?
Well, I don’t want to name that site just yet, but the mod said they didn’t normally “moderate too much”, but he noticed he had 4 “pending” comments that he didn’t put a hold on, and was curious why. He’s supposed to get back to me. Meanwhile..another block. @ Business Week.
Here’s a few. Washington Post, Wired, all the Enquirer sites, all the CondeNast publications that I tried, and some independents. The thing is, a lot of these, I had NEVER posted before, so why would they block me? I also contacted Discus. They don’t moderate sites though. Anyway, still trying to find out WTF is going on.
I posted something at CNN.com but didn’t experience any problem. That was about an hour or two ago.
I say document it. Take screenshots. that was my one and only regret.
I have. All but the first three. That’s when I started getting suspicious. I’ve also enclosed a link to the screenshot in each email to the mods. Just to prove my contention, especially the ones that I had never commented before.
Any possibility that your browser has been hijacked or that that your operating system has been hacked?
Could be. I’m not that savy to find out how though. Funny I can post here and some other sites that are not using Discus. Although I have been blocked at sites that don’t use it. Seems like if that were the case, the IT would be one of the main ones to block me. Thing is, ALL the comments were on civil rights and..ahem…gun rights sites. I have to admit, as you’ve probably picked up on..sometimes I’m not the most civil person on the net. I get pissed. But that doesn’t explain the sites I never commented at before. Anyway, just wanted to know if anyone out there is experiencing the same thing. Thanks for replying .
Do you log into these sites using Facebook? Perhaps your Facebook account is messed up.
The Facebook or Google Log-in is a definite possibility for this.
Are you using any blocking or privacy software/add-in’s? Like Ghostery or Do Not Track Me? You might have to enable something to comment. I have Discus blocked. Check this first.
If not…, your browser may have been hijacked. Particularly if you use a MS OS with Internet Explorer. Firefox can also be hijacked if you don’t watch your settings. Also, please keep in mind that your Internet Service Provider could allowing intercept by the NSA. If using a MS OS best to run a full Anti-Spyware scan. Also run a full Anti-Virus scan. Clear all history, cookies (especially LSO’s), and caches. There are excellent free Anti-Spyware and Anti-Virus programs available for download. If you need help, I’ll take a look at this thread in about an hour.
Lyra1, I’d like to add my ‘Me too,’ to chronicle’s complaint adding that it definitely seems to be worsening problem. It is fairly well documented that much trollish behavior is under many avatars is the work a relatively few miscreants. But this activism, hacking and placement of malware in an attempt to silence comment is particularly troublesome. Certainly my browser has been hijacked repeatedly. I suspect as well that some comments have been disappeared; apparently sent but not delivered. I now get a message that my proxy server is blocking access to websites. That computer uses Win 7 and Ubuntu. My surmise is that the problem is malicious interference, produced not alone by individuals offended by perspectives other than their own, but by organized disruptors attacking any effort to form consensus, demanding change, any change deemed threatening.
Unchecked, these efforts will render discussion and comment on line risky and so avoided.
It occurs to me to ask if there is an IT service industry for comment fora managers. Some folks that might help identify the Pinkertons before they burn down the union meeting hall? To me this a critical issue not alone critical to your survival but mine.
Thank you
only the words “Blocked”. You’re lucky. 2 years ago, I tried to book an online flight from SFO to LA (not LAX) but to some smaller airport inland about 40 miles. I think it was Burbank. Anyways, I tried to book my flight and across my computer screen was a HUGE BLACK BANNER with RED block text writing saying “GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED”. I was not allowed to book a flight there. There several other people at the same event who booked flights in and out of Burbank with No issue. So, yea, I totally believe the government has not only monitoring programs out on the net, but I think they actually would block or divert people’s travel as they see fit.
Disqus smugly points out that one must contact the site.
I have NEVER received a reply from ANY site that I have contacted regarding this.
I believe that censorship, which is EXACTLY what moderating a site is, should be made illegal. I’ve never been at any site where moderation is practiced where the moderators were not capricious as all get out. It poisons left and right.
I sign on using Discus on a number of sites and no problems. Be assured that NSA and CIA think we are pretty small fish unless we start talking about the Russian nuclear bombs that were brought into LA 20 years ago. Bottom line, did you PO your girl friend who is a computer techie?
Yes, I think you are correct that there is something going, I also was blocked after posting on a site in regards to militarization of police force.
I am grateful to have The Intercept as an independent news source and have the highest respect for Glenn Greenwald and his work.
I worked a number of years at Northrop Grumman. We also had a number of “blocked web sites” you could not get at from work. I you need to get somewhere that is being blocked, it can be done at your leisure, not on the company dime and not on their equipment Additionally our blockages were also security driven. This is not Gestapo tactics. And not an infringement of personal liberties.
well it is within their rights to have certain limits on their computers, but that does not mean you can’t
view the material on your personnel computers. It kind of like a parent allowing certain web pages for the children to view.
I would bet it does extend to their personal computers. It did with Wikileaks. It may be somewhat more difficult to enforce, but certainly not impossible.
Why does the military pretend that something published on the internet is still a secret ?
The military also censors news sites they deem “inappropriate.” MilitaryCorruption.com and Antiwar.com are at or near the top of the list. (Note: I found this article via link from Antiwar.com)
What the DOD seems to forget is that nothing can prevent personnel from visiting The Intercept, WikiLeaks or any other “forbidden” site at home, at the library or anywhere else off base.
Actually, all internet traffic on and off base is subject to search: people, data, phone calls, anything. Even non-military family members and their data; in fact non-military family members can be subject to drug testing if they want access to the military base (though, never heard of it done, it clearly says this at all military posts).
Hence, you see a disproportionate quantity busts in the military for accessing illegal pornography. I did run TOR while I was in active duty, but it was long before most people knew what TOR was or how to identify it; we regularly circumvented website blocks with simple web-proxies. Now, I’m sure DOD IT admins (which is an outsourced job) are up to speed on all of this: they actively look for people encrypting or circumventing. Your best bet would be to sign up for a web-based SSL VPN, and just run SSL (or other data encryption) as much as possible. Better bet, just access the internet off base.
That’s not very honorable is it? For the military to censor the internet for soldiers on duty. Sounds like something the Chinese military would do. For one, they are banning news sites that published classified documents, they are public now, justifying censorship by claiming “DoD personnel have an obligation to safeguard classified information.” Obviously that is ridiculous because its already public info!! They can say all they want its classified, shit everything now is “classified”! The most transparent administration ever has really gone above and beyond to make themselves look like fools!
As a former military member, this actually isn’t a big deal. You’d be much more amazed by the propaganda and lies they tell military members. For example, when I was in basic training back in 2003, they still disparaged “communists” and use the word as an insult. I’m not a communist, but this country isn’t at war with any communists either… It was documented that Army Chaplains were telling soldiers in Afghanistan that they were serving in a holy crusade and that they need to spread Christianity. There’s a huge level of propaganda that military members are immersed into, it’s literally a level of brain washing, and it’s very difficult to acknowledge it while you’re in the service, but plainly obvious when one gets out. For example, look at the work of Smedley Butler: most decorated Marine in history, a few years after he’s out he’s become the leader of the anti-war movement.
Paul Chappell is another knowledgeable source for information on how the military bends soldiers to its will. A 2002 graduate of West Point and Iraq War veteran, he is the Peace Leadership Director for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Here he is talking about human nature, war, and peace. A really remarkable talk. Highly recommend for those who haven’t seen it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRAOANK__r4
Here’s the reason why military decision-makers should first get into or at least understand intelligence work before they act and decide. Ban information? In the nation with the highest concentration of knowledge in human history?
Get down from your pedestals, “higher head (ironic) quarters.” Don’t be afraid of people who think. You fight intelligence with intelligence, and not with ignorance or blinders.
Total Bluff: a lil iframe / frame / xframe on a popular website, if run for a segment of time (debatable length) and by definition everyone’s on the security S-*t_List, so no more trust then.
Frankly, I already don’t trust congress, ESPECIALLY that dual citizen B*tch in California (Israel Firster!) holding office of SENATOR.
This is certainly “Orwellian” .
Another prong of the Corporatocracy’s Global Power – the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. EFF offers us an opportunity to petition Ron Wyden to make public the secretive deals and to adjust the language of the agreement to better protect our digital rights.
https://act.eff.org/action/demand-an-end-to-secret-copyright-trade-deals
The Army, Air force, Navy, and Marines with all their technology and sophisticated toys, cannot put the genie back in the bottle. They must have memorized the book: Stupidity -for Idiots.
“…All the kings horses and all the kings men, couldn’t put Humpty together again.”
you forgot Coast Guard. :)
As a sailor of 6 years this is all I have to say about the coast guard
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=762084153847999&l=5a14c5fda8
Guess what…the link ‘isn’t available right now’.
It’s too bad. In the early ’70s, I worked with USCG folks, and I like them better than USN guys! (I as in the Canadian Navy). If the USCG is miserable now, I suspect that it’s been poisoned by having to work with the ATF and the DEA.
Does this prohibition extend to service members who were but are no longer in the military, I wonder? To those who have been recently discharged? To any that have had any knowledge of “classified” material when they were in the service?
When you leave any position where you had access to classified information, you must sign a debriefing letter promising not to reveal any of the information you had access to. In some cases, you are also obliged to deny having done work for, or otherwise have been associated with, the particular agency. (If you get my drift.) But there is nothing to prevent you, as a now-free citizen, from reading whatever you want.
No … they were just glad to get rid of me. :)
*btw, not to belabor the point, I still think the great state Missouri could use a few sheriffs of high moral character and rectitude … like the one in Mayberry, RFD
And as I said before, no argument there!
This is the same kind of action that they took against Wikileaks. At the time, I was working for a war contractor, and the network at work was actively monitored. So it’s nothing new.
Part of the demented philosophy of the military and intelligence community is that classified information is accessible strictly on a “need to know” basis, and unauthorized access as well as disclosure is subject to sanctions. In the ’70s Igot in trouble for taking a page from Aviation Week & Space Technology, stamping “SECRET” on it, and putting it on my bulletin board. When I was being written up, I asked the DIS inspector what action was being taken against AW&ST, and he said, “None”. That’s when I came to realize that there was a two-tier rules system. But isn’t it strange that something that is in the public domain can still be considered classified? To you and me, perhaps, but the Government is apparently incapable of recognizing the inherent contradiction.
Dear Zelda.
In the course of your duties I’m sure a lot of classified material passes your desk. I know you operate on the “cone of silence” principle but I fear for your safety. There are evil and “Kahotic” forces at play here and I someties wonder if your need to know and need to advise is not a conflict of interest.
Please be carefull.
PS. I’ll never forget that night in Budapest in 75……….. Me and you. Boris and Natasha. Moose and squirell. Times have changed but the memories will linger forever.
Dear jabirujoe,
Actually, the secrecy desk at Ft. Meade is held by an intern from Mossad, and it’s really called the Cohen of Silence.
Whoops! Just joshing. Seriously, however, the silence and the deniability does provide safety. It’s the principle behind forbidding our innocent soldiers to look at Wikileaks leaks, Snowden papers and other classified material. If they don’t see it, it doesn’t exist, even if it’s all over the Internet. Same is true when our Dept of Justice lawyers defend the Administration against actions arising from our surveillance. The evidence, Your Honor, is still a classified secret, even if they’re waving it at you right now; it’s inadmissible as evidence under state-secrets privilege, Your Honor; therefore, the Plaintiffs have no case and no standing and we move to dismiss. Eric Holder has kept us out of court on a number of cases on this principle, you see.
Simple, really. It traces back to WWII and a German operative named Sgt. Schultz, who was wise beyond his time. We see nothing, we know nothing, we have nothing that can harm us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ag4nkSh7Q
PS. Boris and Natasha send their love from their new jobs at — wherever it is. Moose and Squirrel are happily settled in a townhouse off Dupont Circle in Washington and send their regards.
Sincerely,
Zelda
International Channels for Diplomacy are hosting a discussion – The Ukraine Crisis: A Dialogue Between Ukrainians, Russians, the West, and Cyber Citizens.
http://icdiplomacy.com/
Your friendly government wants you to know that if you wonder whether you’re a terrorist or not, they have devised a little questionnaire to help you understand and declare your possible terrorist inclinations.
I’m afraid to tell you, some of you ARE pretty strongly inclined in that direction.
http://reason.com/terroristquiz/
Thanks seer!
Laughter is the best medicine.
seer..
Has our friendly government devised a questionnaire to help you understand and declare ‘your’ compulsive lying inclinations?
i stupidly took that quiz, and of course got labeled….then it dawned on me that the next time someone googles my name that webpage accusing me of “terrorist tendencies” will pop up….note to self: think more deeply before acting in future…
LOL! I hope it doesn’t come back to haunt you.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Ghandi (and team)
Amy Goodman & team DemocracyNow are the champs
But, Amy just missed a connection, I think?
A number of days after the Michael Brown shooting, there was another shooting in downtown St. Louis. The story rang with the necessity of the police (2) shooting the victim, “and the need to insure the cops get home to their families at night.” The spokesman for the force was illuminated by this statement “we have to get our cops home safe to their families”, I think I heard it at least three times. Describes the victim as “up-close and life threatening to the officers. Second hand tight details of the incident, “had to get this info out to the public quickly.”
Reported this morning on DemocracyNow, a bystander has come forward with cell phone video that seems to contradict the story. You have to go back and see the spokesperson speaking and covering tail, but to inject this in and around the Mike Brown story, St Louis IS BUSTED
Eric Cantor was just a poser being in Missouri. He should have arranged depositions from the cop and the two main witnesses on the spot. Then let’s take a good look at the body and use 10% of simple forensics and determine exactly WTF happened here.
This is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi0lYWZ_stA
The shooting is at about 1:40. When the guy is shot, does it look like the cops are in imminent danger? There has to be a better way to handle a situation like that.
Eric Cantor was just a poser being in Missouri.
Pretty sure you meant Eric Holder. Cantor is probably back in Virginia still licking his wounds over his primary loss. ;-}
thank you for noting my error
Eric Holder was just a poser being in St. Louis.
They did the same thing after WikiLeaks published the Manning leaks.
My understanding is that the order is to prevent introducing classified documents on an unclassified DOD network. “Leakage” is a common problem that DOD IT try to prevent and mitigate once it happens. What personnel do on their own time with their own machines is beyond the ability of the DOD to monitor or enforce.
“What personnel do on their own time with their own machines is beyond the ability of the DOD to monitor or enforce.”
Unable to monitor? That seems to have been effectively disproved by the articles on this site and others over the past year that, in fact, the DOD, NSA, et al. can pretty much monitor whoever they want, whenever they want.
This leads to the second assertion: “to enforce.” Since the ability to monitor almost any computer has been shown – the fact that it can be done is, in itself, a “chilling-effect” and an enforcement tool the government promotes by the action of “monitoring” private citizens and military personnel on their “own – aka, private time.”
Since monitoring is not only possible, but is also being done on a wider scale than we likely know about even now – we’ll probably see that there will be more arrests or careers ended because of personal computers being monitored by the government in order to protect its own interests, not the interests of the American citizen.
this. i heard way too often that some people threw out completely naive phrases, like “they arent monitoring you in particular” or “with these mountains of data theyll never have enough personell to do something useful with it!”.
of course theyll make sense of it – there are computers for that.
of course theyll monitor you too, all they need is to create another file in storage.
of course they know about everything you posted all your life, everyone you contacted all your life and if you carry your smartphone all the time they even know all your routes and whereabouts.
even if they dont find what they need from you, one of your relatives, friends, contacts, workmates will surely deliver.
needless to say they will use that data against you if they feel they would gain something through it. they wouldnt need this monster surveillance infrastructure otherwise.
Maybe I and you are indeed not that important but imagine you know the dirty laundry of the future global political elite.. it would be tragic if something bad would happen to all these promising careers.
Well golly gee whiskers … (attention on deck) mandatory book-burning at 0800.
*meanwhile, i was just reading in the NYT ‘anonymous Admin. officials’ disclosed ‘operational details’ of a raid into Syria to try and rescue Foley this summer … much to the dismay of DoD.
Dismissed.
So what happens to those who read the extracts from these documents and also from Wikileaks. It would be good to do a story on what happens to those people. I suspect that they end up on some sort of list for some more tracking and ‘long term security issues’. I wonder what that ‘long term security issues’ mean?
“Long term security issues” = something like what happened to the character in 1984. The state wants you, the potential security issue, to know only what it tells you, you need to know. More than that, and you are a risk to their whole control mechanisms. Thus the threat of additional sanctions to your access to classified stuff if you get even a little bit curious about the crap it wants to hide from everybody who isn’t part of the incrowd. It all gets a bit twisted doesn’t it?
Reminds me of Monty Python’s Funniest Joke in the World.
This topic was hit upon in the comments below, but does merit further examination in full scope by American citizens.
“Turning America Into a War Zone, Where ‘We the People’ Are the Enemy”
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/turning_america_into_a_war_zone_where_we_the_people_are_the_enemy
“Life in the American police state is an endless series of don’ts delivered at the end of a loaded gun: don’t talk back to police officers, don’t even think about defending yourself against a SWAT team raid (of which there are 80,000 every year), don’t run when a cop is nearby lest you be mistaken for a fleeing criminal, don’t carry a cane lest it be mistaken for a gun, don’t expect privacy in public, don’t let your kids walk to the playground alone, don’t engage in nonviolent protest near where a government official might pass, don’t try to grow vegetables in your front yard, don’t play music for tips in a metro station, don’t feed whales, and on and on.
For those who resist, who dare to act independently, think for themselves, march to the beat of a different drummer, the consequences are invariably a one-way trip to the local jail or death.”
Take Oppositional Action Here:
https://www.aclu.org/secure/communities-warzones?ms=web_140814_warzones_militarization_BOR
Notwithstanding being near a person who is being arrested in Connecticut, lest you get detained just for being in..well..the same universe.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140731/13243828075/connecticut-supreme-court-says-state-cops-can-detain-you-simply-being-vicinity-someone-theyre-arresting.shtml
don’t try to grow vegetables in your front yard,
They don’t need to worry about that. The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug is taking care of bidness for da man. :-s
Ridiculous, their castle is going to collapse and what do they do? Put the head in the sand!
Well done The Intercept!
Well done The Intercept, to be banned is a badge of honour.
Meanwhile, over here:
https://deveer.org.uk/dvr/index.php?title=ECHELON_Grooms_Voyeurs_%26_Future_Sexual_Predators
The Voyeurs & Future Sexual Predators of ECHELON are being outed!
Sheer lunacy…. So, this is just like telling a teenager NOT to smoke that doobie in the ashtray on the table right in front of them. I wish there were a way to measure compliance… 70-80% ‘jam it in your ass ???
Documents published on the internet are in no way classified, and they only pretend otherwise to censor the information.
Dear Intercept, shine that mega bright sunlight right up their arse!!
Congratulation Intercept, you have arrived! You have the top government officials quaking in their boots! Now you have to find out “who” are the ones giving the “real” order to block your website. Good job! Keep digging, I love it!
Same shtick happened to Alex Jones & Infowars. So now, you are in the same company as Alex Jones. http://www.infowars.com/u-s-military-blocks-infowars-com/
Well by gosh and by golly. He must be a crusader, too.
Thanks to The Intercept for starting to grow into the American news voice that we need right now. A suggestion – the western press desperately needs an honest voice on the Ukraine crisis and The Intercept is the perfect outlet for that. The Guardian journalist @asluhn would be a candidate to consider. Check out @gbazov and slavyangrad.org for literate, intellectual and passionate ‘pro-Russian’ coverage of the crisis. Most of what appears in the mainstream is based on Kiev press releases – and the credibility of the Kiev regime has proven out over time as around zero. Again, thanks to The Intercept. Peace.
The Intercept is the voice of the people. The beginning of hope. The light in the tunnel. The airfreshener, cleansing, disinfecting the nausea. The Intercept is the end of the elites control and manipulation of the news and the minds and perceptions of the masses. This is a win for freedom and democracy, breaking free from control by a minority. Many congratulations to The Intercept for transferring some of the fear and oppression back to those that inflict it daily on their ordinary people. They are running scared now so look out for more extreme censorship and new unjust laws that will attempt to regain some of their control.
to GG–> re: The Intercept is the perfect outlet for coverage of Kiev–Guardian journalist @asluhn and slavyangrad.org for literate, intellectual and passionate ‘pro-Russian’ coverage of the crisis…another moment of truth is rushing in!
This is that brilliant intelligence that asks people who work for the military to be dumber than the average bear. It does remind one of some delusional authoritarian regimes. But hell this is the land of the free. I am as usual sort of Sloberknocked by them all. Hopefully they do understand why some of us worry about them all.
TRUTH IS THE NEW LAW IN TOWN —
AMY GOODMAN IS THE SHERIFF —
DEMOCRACY NOW HER POSSE —
SHE SHOULD WEAR A WHITE HAT —
THE INTERCEPT = TOWN CRIER
It is very nice to have news people you can trust.
unfortunately 60% think fox is truth.
Look out for the secret police who will now try to track the origins of samizdat. Its ironic how we have become like the very regimes that used to be vilified and demonised. Incidentally, I can see how avoiding more boots on the ground (a good thing) leads to some huge ironies. Despite the fact that governments/msm would have you believe that its us air power allied with Kurd/Iraq boots on the ground, I think the main story here is that the boots on the ground are Iranian – funny what strange bedfellows have come together..still the IS people have it coming in spades.
Strange bedfellows indeed. It’s no coincidence that the Iranian leaders have been more cozy with the USA of late. America’s military and government are doing them a huge favor – bumping and squeezing the Sunnis and doing the dirty drone work so that the Shias (read Iranians) can gain control of the region. The powerful magnetism of the mideast OIL entices the U.S. government to support whoever seems to control the oil pump.
Orwellian:
Obama speaking the words “ideology without value for human life”, look in the mirror dude
Imagine every single classified secret the U.S. has is suddenly available on the internet. Are you telling me you think this would make the world a better place? Are you saying this would empower and safeguard individual U.S. citizens (and therefore somehow our entire society would be stronger, better, emancipated)?
Or are you saying a law is only a law until it’s broken, and then it’s “the court of public opinion” that counts?
Have you ever pictured yourself with a pitchfork?
Or a noose?
Or a swastika?
How is “adversarial journalism” any less a contradiction than “Fox News”?
I’m guessing most of the commentators on this lovely red/white/black themed blog (where have I seen that theme before..) can stare straight at their own doppelganger and never once notice a resemblance.
Here’s a new category; “victim journalism”. It’s not so much written as consumed. Consumptive consumption.
I know; it’s not you. It’s them. Definitely them. Always them.
Don’t forget to subscribe.
Yes of course transparency has a cost in a world where other empires want the upper hand. There does have to be a limit to what is disclosed. However it is the current mess of laws and double standards, authority for authority’s sake, failures in oversight and related abuses of surveillance, that are at issue. Campaigners dumping secrets on the internet are wrong to do this but government is also wrong in abusing it’s control of information and intelligence There has to be a balance in an open society but neither government nor protestor seem to want to find common ground, seek proportionality, and agree what governments can or cannot do. Snowden and Assange were irresponsible, governments have become authoritarian.
Brilliant! Now your superior needs an apple polished. Off you go!
No one involved with The Intercept has ever even remotely made such a suggestion. A vivid but not reality based imagination you have there Chris.
Not at all. There is the rule of law, the US Constitution, the law of the land. But that law is being ignored by the very people who have sworn oaths to uphold and protect it from enemies foreign and domestic. The people have been temporarily blind-sided by foreign enemies that have been groomed and funded by those oath breakers and the interests that profit from endless war. Such blindness, deliberately created, has served the profiteers well, by encouraging in the people ignorance of the law of the land so they can get away with blatantly committed crimes by never being prosecuted for them.
So we are saying, “Hell, prosecute the criminals under existing law. That law was made for just such purpose!”
Imagine what kind of world this would be where US secret agencies are being able to blackmail pretty much every person on the globe in future key positions, just because they collect everything they can about everyone “just in case”.
I guess we will find out soon enough.
I think there are some commanders with too much free time on their hands. Kill the 1033 program and put them on the task of selling surplus equipment to other countries. We’ve seen what law enforcement does with its free military toys and it isn’t pretty.
Selling your shit to other countries is a big part of the problem worldwide.
We already do that.
The quickest way to create interest in reading something is to ban it. The
best selling books throughout history have been ones that have been banned.
Any soldier with a brain will want to read the intercept now. The one’s who
don’t want to are the one’s we should worry about.
Tom Petty got RICH when they banned his song
Don’t think of the color GREEN. ha ha got ya
“The one’s who don’t want to are the one’s we should worry about”.. well put!! –and that applies to the ones NOT in the military too. Like local cops who follow orders without thinking.. or think THEY are the law… . The ones who sign up for the police force because they think it makes them a man.. the ones with the GOD complex. The ones who think Snowden is a traitor… Ad nauseum.
This is one of the most ridiculous, idiotic, moronic, absurd, bizarre, silly, nonsensical, perplexing ways of controlling information I have ever seen.
I don’t think we’ve even started to get REDICULOUS, IDIOTIC, MORONIC, ect, ect.
People hanging on to power, last grip, are the most desperate and dangerous
sorry to go full-pedantic on you, but you’ve hit a pet peeve: ‘ect’ has no meaning…
the latin term is ‘et cetera’ (and others), commonly abbreviated to ‘etc’…
ironically, those regimes that historically had a somewhat realistic chance of getting toppled were mostly dictatorships. if people would try that with one of our beloved “free countries”, the protests simply would be ended bloody and thats it.
You are just now being made aware of “military intelligence” at it’s finest?
Of course. “Military intelligence” is a contradiction in terms, you see.
The fear and arrogance are an affront to the intelligence of a citizen who happens to be targeted by the very military who prohibit the reading of information on the internet.
Is the NSA allowed to read the Intercept? If not, then the “Terrorists” (whomever they are supposed to be) can just use the comment boxes to plan and coordinate without worrying that anyone in the US military or intelligence are reading them.
“Military Intelligence is an oxymoron as they are mutually exclusive” used to be a joke. Now it is a truism.
Good point.
I think the inner party members have that privilege.
They may turn off their telescreens too, but only for 30 minutes or so.
Long-running joke, tz. They have never, ever “been heroes” to me. If anyone was insane enough to actually try to invade the US, Americans would be fist-fighting on the shores to get off the first shots at them: we do not need a large Standing Military.
Period.
More proof a Fascist Dictatorial Militarized Surveillance State but the military forgets two important points, illegal orders are invalid orders and they do not supersede the Constitution.Hopefully if this goes to trial, it will be a Federal Jury trial
If only we were so fortunate that the prescribed checks and balances worked.
Dare I bring up the Pat Tillman rumors
Hands up Don’t shoot
A lot more echoes and add men screaming enough to yell your brains out. For 8 weeks and break at night for five hours. That’s the unions at work for American freedoms. Fuck all you bastards. You know nothing of what it takes to survive torture or what the people around you are capable of. Your days are limited this is the end of your life as you know it. Lauren
Burning sensation is level 9. A level 10 would include the ripping of skin. She did experience heat sensation when we made her stick her feet in a hot burning pot of foot menu cure wax. Cranked all the way up and she took it for over three minutes. Burning sensation comes on in the crotch area. It’s really painful and burns like hell. Have fun!!!
How does one set up a site that would allow postings from “Intercept” or other such sites to circumvent governmental prohibitions and be available for all (including military personnel) to read?
It’s easy. Set up a mirror of The Intercept as a Tor hidden service.
Hey!! Congrats to The Intercept! Print out that memo and slap it on the fridge. When you reach for that mid-story snack, breathe a bit of relief knowing your journalism is the best.
I’m proud of you..
Does this mean the NSA tracks everyone who reads an article on this site?
Lauren says hello. That’s all it takes. Then they are in. It’s all in your brain. They hear you and see your thoughts. You are FUCKED
does this mean every person who views this website is now on NSA monitoring list?
Bet on it ;) They’re not very picky.
the more people on the lists the more work for NSA, CIA+++et al—they’ll be hiring for years to come (and of course, sending the bill to taxpayors) BTW: most of the agencies are not as diabolical as some here are suggesting. They simply have an insatiable appetite for more of your money! The only way to reduce those appetites is to reduce taxation without true representation…13 stars13 stripes….the meekinheritALL
Peace love & anarchy can save the day
I’d rather not be on the lists, thank you. I fly a lot for business, and it would cramp my style. I’m sure that mirimir and many of my other personae (and their personae, pesky buggers) are on the lists, but they don’t get out much.
hi M-> so then the question becomes what would you do/avoid doing to keep youself off the lists?
I stay off the lists by being totally ordinary. As my true identity, I’m a typical apolitical workaholic. I’m on Facebook with family and friends. I network on LinkedIn. I stay unseen by revealing nothing that attracts attention.
As mirimir, I’m a privacy activist and freelance writer. From time to time, I express other interests using other personae. I use VPN services, Tor and JonDonym, in various combinations, to isolate my personae from my true identity, and from each other. For the most part, I’m just testing approaches to write about.
I use VPN services to conceal all of that from my ISP and other observers. That is a risk, but using VPNs is quite common among torrent freaks, which I also happen to be. My cover traffic provides free viewing pleasure :)
I’m active as mirimir on Wilders Security Forums and Tor.StackExchange, and I’ve written several privacy guides for the iVPN website.
Malicious people may send top secret document attachments, which are readily available on the internet, to military personnel. I would suggest the Pentagon hire some 12 year old interns who would be available to delete those attachments. They might not be able to hire them directly, but they could engage them as independent contractors so they would be exempt from the prohibition on accessing computers that contained unauthorized classified material. The alternative would be to remotely detonate those computers to prevent the military from being exposed to them.
It might also be helpful if someone compiled a list of other sites such as the New York Times, Washington Post and The Guardian which have published classified documents and sent it to the US military so that personnel who have visited those sites can be prosecuted under the Espionage Act.
That is an excellent point. Why doesn’t the military start banning people from going to the New York Times and the Washington Post?
Glenn Greenwald,
You should sue the US government. This is a violation of the freedom of press. Their counterargument that you are disclosing classified information doesn’t hold water because they are not banning anyone in the military or contractors affiliated with the military from reading the New York Times or the Washington Post.
State organs. Why bother?
All 3 organization (Theintercept, the Washington Post, and the New York Times) are news organizations that have published classified information that they felt was in the public’s best interest. The government should not be allowed to ban one of them that they don’t like and allow the military and contractors working for the military to read one of them that they don’t like. Truth be told, the military probably doesn’t like any of them but they are like a big bully and think they can get away with pushing around skinny little TheIntercept, but know that if they mess with The Washington Post or the New York Times that they are picking a fight that they will lose. Hopefully they will also lose trying to pick on TheIntercept, but it will take a lawsuit to make them see what they have done and how it is a violation of the 1st amendment of the constitution of the United States of America.
Take 2 (no preview before publish so I had typos)
All 3 organizations (Theintercept, the Washington Post, and the New York Times) are news organizations that have published classified information that they felt was in the public’s best interest. The government should not be allowed to ban contractors and military personnel from reading one of them that they don’t like and allow the military and contractors working for the military to read other news outlets that they approve of that have committed the same offense of publishing classified information (e.g., the Washington Post and the New York Times). Truth be told, the military probably doesn’t like any of them but they are like a big bully and think they can get away with pushing around skinny little TheIntercept, but know that if they mess with The Washington Post or the New York Times that they are picking a fight that they will lose. Hopefully they will also lose trying to pick on TheIntercept, but it will take a lawsuit to make them see what they have done and how it is a violation of the 1st amendment of the constitution of the United States of America.
PS: our last post should have mentioned that GG might go straight for the throat, if he hasn’t already…I should be checking back soon
Meek
“State organs. Why bother?”
Organ transplant?
hi Person: 3 primary reasons that people will not be banned from going to the NYTimes, WPA and other (alternative?) MSM: those outlets (presstitute media) will only go so far, they will never, ever even touch on certain subjects, and their follow-up (if any) is weak. This also applies to alt media.
The above can be combined with other tactics also.
For instance, if I go and say sillyPutty is mostly mum on Nazi Ukraine and 911truth, they’ll prolly ignore…if I keep it up, they’ll seek to disparage, then they’ll pick fights, but eventually, we win. (Ghandi said sumpthin’ like that.)
MeekShall
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Ghandi
Yes :-)
Speaking of the military…
*US Readying More Troops to ‘Crush’ ISIS *
“The Obama Administration has never been one to let a sad piece of news slip by unexploited, and when news emerged last night of the beheading of journalist James Foley by ISIS, they were quick to transition their narrative to fit the new story. The US was already escalating the Iraq War at an alarming pace under the guise of a “humanitarian intervention,” but now are using Foley’s killing as the official justification to continue that escalation in the name of revenge… Obama went on to declare that ‘no just God would stand for what they did yesterday and what they do every single day,’ vowing his own relentless pursuit of them. Secretary of State John Kerry was more direct, vowing to crush ISIS militarily, and declaring the group the ‘face of a new evil’ whose very existence is an insult to Islam.”
http://news.antiwar.com/2014/08/20/us-readying-more-troops-to-crush-isis/
There are over a thousand troops (‘advisers’) in Iraq right now. 3000 troops at the border. Airstrikes continue, and support for more troops is indeed building propagandistically. As decent as we all wish to think of ourselves, it seems obvious we’ve been manipulated so the consent to ‘go back’ militarily is successfully manufactured. This is not to diminish the awfulness of the horrible and obviously inexcusable execution, just to point out it is being exploited cynically to re-involve the military in corporate-protection warfare.
I don’t think anyone is being cynically exploited, Cindy (except for you by antiwar.com). Airstrikes are a common tactic used by the US in Pakistan and Yemen without involving US troops. In addition, even though the Iraqi army outnumbered the ISIS by tens of thousands of troops, they still turned tail and ran leaving the door wide open for the ISIS. So advisers to retrain the Iraqi army seems prudent. I expect the US to keep using airstrikes to combat the brutal ISIS. I do agree that the US is selectively outraged by the murder of one journalist considering the amount of brutal murders by this organization of terrorists.
Thanks.
I think you are compromised morally, and do not perceive how unethical the West can be.
And you’re welcome.
“……and do not perceive how unethical the West can be……”
I’ll never deny the possibility that Obama will put troops on the ground, but it’s really not a matter of how “unethical the west can be”. It’s more a matter of reviewing how Obama has conducted foreign policy over the last couple of years. Based on that, he will NOT make Iraq into another ground war. Obama prefers using drones which terrorize the terrorists.
He escalated the war in Afghanistan, tripling the troop levels there (note he also sent drones). His love for drones alone is also well-documented, and proves in itself he’s a war criminal just like Bush and Cheney. And the fact that you think reluctance for ground wars is somehow more ‘terrorizing of the terrorists’ than a pursuit of cowardly strikes from sky-robots only demonstrates my point that you are morally deranged, adding the peculiar and pathetic dimension that you are also now bizarrely defending Obama, someone you hate simply because he is a Democrat.
Think things through before you blather on.
“…….He escalated the war in Afghanistan, tripling the troop levels there (note he also sent drones)……”
As far as I know, he added about 30,000 troops to bring the total to 100,000 (41% increase. Triple??
“…….His love for drones alone is also well-documented, and proves in itself he’s a war criminal just like Bush and Cheney……”
His love affair with drones is well known, but they are very effective. Take Pakistan, for example. He increased the drone attacks in Pakistan which caused the terrorists (TTB) to attack the Pakistan government and civilians to pressure the Pakistan government into forcing the US to quit using drones. Fortunately, the US kept up the drone strikes.
The Pakistan government has finally gotten the message that the TTB are radical Islamists dangerous to the people in Pakistan. The TTB has brutally bombed the Shia Hazaras killing hundreds – many at Shia Mosques. They seek to form an Islamic state with Sharia law. They are the ones that attempted to assassinate the little girl shooting her in the head. She just wanted to go to school. They have burned down schools and thrown acid in the faces of little girls riding bikes to school.
The Pakistan government is currently fighting the terrorists – the TTB. Hopefully, they will be eradicated (like any other disease).
“…….And the fact that you think reluctance for ground wars is somehow more ‘terrorizing of the terrorists’ than a pursuit of cowardly strikes from sky-robots only demonstrates my point that you are morally deranged….
Thanks. I do love the concept of “terrorizing the terrorists”.
“…….adding the peculiar and pathetic dimension that you are also now bizarrely defending Obama…..”
I will defend some of Obama’s policies from you idiots on the fringe left.
“……someone you hate simply because he is a Democrat…..”
Disagree with, not hate. Hate is an emotion cornered by your ilk.
Thanks.
And yes it is INDEED a matter of how unethical the West can be, violently assaulting places and people (over 50 countries*) in which it has no decent business, all in the name of corporatism, militarism and corrupt alliances, neglecting the framers wish to avoid all foreign entanglements.
*
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/05/06/the-united-states-is-fighting-how-many-wars/
He tripled the troops There were 30,000 when he took office. 3 times that amount is what, Einstein?
You really should face down your prejudice, and conquer your moral depravity and willingness to kill.
Troop levels in Afghanistan: Look at the graph, bonehead:
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/06/22/250807/obamas-troop-reduction-afghanistan/
“……Troop levels in Afghanistan: Look at the graph, bonehead…..”
Thanks Cindy. I’ll give you that one. I misread a report from the NY Times.
“……You really should face down your prejudice, and conquer your moral depravity and willingness to kill……”
It has nothing to do with a willingness to kill. It’s a willingness to defeat those that want to subjugate people. The attempted assassination of the girl who simply wanted to learn is what I oppose. How can you not? But I appreciate your propaganda and your willingness to ignore terrorists like the TTB.
Thanks.
Cindy,
Bless you and your dogged rebuttals of Summers.
+1
I vote Cindy. LOL
yes, thank you, cindy for getting in the mud to wrestle the summer pig…
@ summer soldier: since his ‘reply’ button wasn’t available, i reply here: please give a body count so we might determine who is to ‘blame’ here:
since -say, semi-arbitrarily- 2000
# of amerikan civilians killed by al qaeda/hamas/isis/mooselimbs everywhere
# of amerikan mercenaries (military) killed by, you know, the bad guys listed abv
# of non-amerikan civilians killed by Empire
# of non-amerikan combatants killed by Empire
(oh, wait, you’re going to have a tough time, because we don’t ‘count’ our enemy dead, because they don’t ‘count’, not humans, and all, you know…)
for extra credit, please tell me how many times al qaeda/hamas/isis/etc have occupied our country ? ? ? droned us ? ? ? overthrown our gummints ? ? ?
NOW, tell me who has the moral high ground, kapitalist imperialist foot soldier…
“… even though the Iraqi army outnumbered the ISIS by tens of thousands of troops, they still turned tail and ran leaving the door wide open for the ISIS. So advisers to retrain the Iraqi army seems prudent.” – Craig, aka “the true believer even unto death”
Yeah, let’s keep doing the same thing over and over again, even though it has NEVER worked. Fucking sepoys. What can you do?
Basic training for the Imperial Troops at home only takes 6 weeks Craig. The question you have to ask yourself, “is our children learning?”.
Maybe they just don’t want to kill their brothers, not for the Empire, not for money, and most certainly not for you.
“……..Maybe they just don’t want to kill their brothers, not for the Empire, not for money, and most certainly not for you……”
If that was true, Bill, Iraq would not be the mess it is today. The ISIS has enlisted the help of marginalized Sunnis (by the Shia dominated government) to help control parts of Iraq. The Kurdish and Shia controlled areas of Iraq are now threatened by the ISIS. So I think fear and poor training is what caused the Iraqi army to retreat for the most part.
http://rt.com/news/166092-iraq-militants-mass-executions/
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Your own freedom of speech fighter will be your downfall. She is single handedly taking you out. You have lost your voice because Little Weed got your attention and you FUCKED HER LIVE, everyone saw it and every female in the media HATES YOU. YOU FUCKED YOUR ONE TRUE VOICE.
Lauren uncle bob Wilson investigated agent orange. Lauren has seen it all friends. She doesn’t give a shit. She has survived level fucking 9. She is FUCKING WONDER WOMAN
So the military doesn’t understand the internet..??? After stuff is published on sites like The Intercept, it is invariably referenced and repeated all over the web. Not sure how they think that people aren’t going to find out about it. And what’s to stop them from using a VPN or TOR on their personal computers to check it out?
And what’s to stop them from using a VPN or TOR on their personal computers to check it out?
Supreme aversion to irony?
Perhaps the term “military-industrial complex” now refers not only to the merger of warmongering and corporations, but also indicates a type of paranoid and institutionalized neurosis that refuses to see reality.
You’re undoubedtly onto something…
Thanks for the laugh!
“paranoid and institutionalized neurosis that refuses to see reality.”
I doubt that Cindy. They are deliberately pushing that reality. It’s the one that protects and perpetuates their interests, and the plans for power over and control of every human on the planet, are going quite well. A little hiccup like Ferguson or Snowden is not going stop them – it will make them stronger in the long run.
Paranoia and neurosis are terms THEY use to describe people who have been revealing their plans for the human race for decades now; the up to date most modern term for us being “conspiracy theorist”.
Lauren has an upset stomache from all the stress. We can’t give her a break. We are up your asshole. We are finding all kinds if shit in you and your fellow journalists. Turn your click on timer for its just a small amount if time for who bell tolls.
Picture 15 was Lauren’s favorite.
Intercept is my favorite. I’m recommend for all. Carry on!
To all pe to rso gains so of good will:
A documentation of my severe torture under an illegally classified program and whose ‘url’ I posted on this website Recently Has Been Removed From THE Internet by some party with Something to gain by suppressing the info.
The ‘url’ is:
http://peacepink.ning.com/profiles/blogs/nano devices -in-sensory-overload-mind-control-torture. The word ‘nanode vices ‘ in their Url is one word. I have trouble with the keyboard; some of these keys are missing suddenly.
It is important to mention that this document is available from 2 other sites but the above mentioned site has the formated version and is the most recent update.
Please visit the site and read and refer others to it. Thank you.
Of course the military can order their people to do or not-do *anything*…they can (& do) order them to jump out of helicopters onto landmines.
The real issue here is civilian employees: Log onto The Intercept from anywhere & you’ll be considered a security risk; you’ll lose your *access*; you’ll lose your J-O-B !!! (And most of those jobs pay really well.)
Get your dogs in uniform cause they like orange suits
I believe they did the same thing, or something like it, when the Wikileaks material came out. As for blocking websites, that’s been an ongoing problem (e.g., sites like Wonkette). Can’t let our proles in uniform read Emmanuel Goldstein freely.
Finding yourselves now part of a “subversive spectrum” that ranges from Wikileaks to the healthfood hemp seeds, tell the truth, everyone smiled a little. It even put one on my face for TI…
May it haunt them in ways they can’t possibly imagine.
And I have it as my “homepage”. I must be doing something right.
I bookmarked The Intercept’s first report so I click to “The NSA’s Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program” a few times everyday. I hope that doesn’t cause me any problems down the line.
Time to mirror The Intercept at a set of rotating URLs: http://www.tehintercept.com?
You would have to create something that does not consist of the words “The Intercept” in it as they have told everyone not to visit any website named The Intercept.
My son works for the Social Security Administration. All federal employees have been told not to read classified materials available online. He says “they” take this quite seriously, so he won’t even allude to things like the Snowden revelations on social media.
At all, or just at work? I wouldn’t think they have any jurisdiction at all over what you do at home on your own time.
I didn’t see the email, but I seem to recall his saying it applies to both. At any rate, he won’t mention this stuff in either context online.
Except of course they don’t take it quite seriously because they don’t mind “authorized” leaks of classified information painting the government in a good light, or exposing a supposed bad deed by a foreign enemy, etc.
Maybe it would be simpler to say: The government takes leaks of classified information that makes it look bad quite seriously. The government does not take all leaks of classified information quite seriously.
Connecting the dots between Military Industrial Complex and Ferguson:
http://littlesis.org/maps/259-profiting-from-ferguson
Very good dot connecting. When you add all the controlled corporations to the chart you’ll find similar connections between global food companies, health related companies, insurance concerns, the spy groups – the list goes on – they’re all tied together, interrelated and ultimately connected to a very few people at the very top who own pieces of everything and exert control over everything from that position
by manipulation of money and legalized bribery and us, the taxpayers whose good faith and credit is exploited to pay all the bills.
They have such a cynical sense of humor, don’t you think, hiding it all behind the boogeyman of antisemitism.
“The structure of the control network of transnational corporations affects global market com-
petition and financial stability. So far, only small national samples were studied and there was
no appropriate methodology to assess control globally. We present the first investigation of the
architecture of the international ownership network, along with the computation of the control
held by each global player. We find that transnational corporations form a giant bow-tie struc-
ture and that a large portion of control flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions.
This core can be seen as an economic “super-entity” that raises new important issues both for
researchers and policy makers.”
Vitali et al. (2011) The network of global corporate control
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1107.5728.pdf
This site needs an edit option :(
“The structure of the control network of transnational corporations affects global market competition and financial stability. So far, only small national samples were studied and there was no appropriate methodology to assess control globally. We present the first investigation of the architecture of the international ownership network, along with the computation of the control held by each global player. We find that transnational corporations form a giant bow-tie structure and that a large portion of control flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions. This core can be seen as an economic “super-entity” that raises new important issues both for researchers and policy makers.”
Vitali et al. (2011) The network of global corporate control
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1107.5728.pdf
Thank you. Looks like a very interesting read.
May I suggest, if you haven’t read Antony Sutton I recommend his Wall Street Trilogy beginning with Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, then WS and FDR, to the last, WS and the Rise of Hitler. Excellently researched and written, with copious documentation, his work elucidates areas of finance and control of global affairs that have been effectively obscured.
Sutton was a scholar and historian of exacting honesty and forthrightness. His academic career was demolished by the gang due to those of his virtues. You’ll thoroughly enjoy his work – I promise.
George Carlin figured it out–> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XJdNw4E9pw
Make sure that barn door is closed now that the horses are running down the street.
Not Banned by the U.S. Military:
Land Mines
Cluster Bombs
Night Raids
Depleted Uranium Munitions
Preemptive War
Nuclear First Strike
Banned by the U.S. Military:
The Intercept
Well said @2millionlightyearstoandromeda! Well said.
Untinted perspective is everything…
*faved*
Clear lensing and too poignantly true…
*faved*
Well said.
+10 internets for that one!
Don’t forget Hollowpoint Bullets.
Thanks!
Some folks is downright tortured by what they read in that intercept.
It’s not torture, it’s “harsh techniques” and “stress positions.” Didn’t you get the memo?
in 1970, the military banned “underground newspapers” on ground they printed stories encouraging people to protest the war in Vietnam. I still had a subscription to “Berkeley Tribe” while I served with the USAF in Thailand, and it came every month, for free, because it was addressed to an APO box. When I left, I forwarded the subscription to a friend at the same base. His address was identical, except for the box number.
Doesn’t this infringe on the right of an individual, would a person be penalized if they visited these sites from home or public networks
Here are your rights.
You have the right to remain silent when questioned.
Anything you say or do will be used against you in a court of law.
You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future.
If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you before any questioning, if you wish.
If you decide to answer any questions now, without an attorney present, you will still have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to an attorney.
Knowing and understanding your rights as I have explained them to you, are you willing to answer my questions without an attorney present?
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Only if you’re Ghandi and have millions of followers. If you’re Joe Blow you wind up in or under the jail.
yes, i will point out that the ONLY reason india/britain were ‘afraid’ of ghandi, was NOT because of the purity of his morals and righteousness of their cause, but because he DID have millions of followers…
The They ™ didn’t think, ‘oh goshies, we’re being so mean and unjust, and now we find out we aren’t moral; well, we certainly have to reverse course on that, now that this massive movement has finally brought our unfairness to our attention…’
no, what they thought was: ‘Holy shit! if those millions decide to get angry and have a necktie party, our necks will be elongated…’
THAT was their motivation, not some recognition of a higher moral calling…
He was an ice cold agitator who speculated on the global outcry due to his defenseless followers getting mass slaughtered being beneficial for his goals.
Those who think he was all hippy flippy moral superior simply dont realize that he was an analyst, not a humanist.
what do you call 40 lawyers on the bottom of the sea?
A: a good start…..
Gandhi was a lawyer in South Africa….before returning to India….and doing his “Swadeshi” thing….
that’s “Gandhi” folks….not Ghandi
You in no way grasp what Lauren has achieved in terms of torture degrees. She has combated a level of extreme interrogation tactics never used on a woman. Her burning sensation was complete in all capacity for multiple levels. She has received a level nine. The Japanese, the British, and the Germans know this. You have no idea who you are fuckin with. The WORLD will get you Glenn. You are fucked.
You guys need to stop making the “news” about yourselves. It’s unbecoming. The journos should not be the center of attention.
This is what happens when truth becomes an enemy of the state.
We can’t let Wonder Wiman go to the grocery store as there are so many death threats. We have to clean out the stores and have all the secret service follow her before she can go. She is fucked because of YOU. She fucking hates you.
Lauren wrote a great story about an Indian woman who was burned to death in front of her house in India before she got followed by your fat lazy workers comp followers. Hillary loved it. Lauren is the nigger woman of the world. You fuck women world wide when you fuck her. She is Phenonmenal. Your fighter is OURS fucker
This is not as big of a deal as your making it out to be. As someone who deals with classified US government work on a regular basis I’ve seen this before.
There are very stringent government policies regarding classified information. Specifically, even publicly available classified information is forbidden from being on a non-classified computer. Technically, visiting Wikileaks on my work computer is warrant enough for having the computer brought in to IT to get “scrubbed” and a black mark put by my name. Heck, technically any US citizen who downloads the Snowden leaks online is liable and can be arrested for knowingly accessing classified material above their clearance.
They’re not trying to censor information, they’re trying to cover themselves up from possibly breaking the law.
I would like mostly to share that SAC is full of shite and they killed TAC for saying it.
Good luck and don’t confuse the fog with the smoke machines.
Good job guys!
Lauren wants to give you her Amazonian profile. As a letter writing protester I don’t like crowds or personal confrontation. I like words but people are more difficult to deal with. I write letters I do not walk streets or go to town hall meetings. I smell strange shit sometimes. Like a bomb sniffing dog. I sense things out of place and it at first entertains me. I grow fearful as odd things happen and I feel cornered. I hide in motherhood as I have three babies to raise and protect. I feel shame for lack of education towards the ones I oppose. I learn from my odd surroundings and I grow stronger with words. I suffer severe mental health issues both related and unrelated to stalking. I grow violent because if the trap and I suffer fri severe depression because of the loss I my one and only true love that I helped to kill with morphine. I am tired and I am tried again to be sent to prison. The CIA takes me. Either way u WAS DONE. Lauren
I’m not surprised by the restriction on usage of military/government computers and the sites that are blocked. The old adage it’s their sandbox and if you can’t play by their rules, too bad. The statement from the DOD spokesperson was accurate in that they can and will block sites that contain classified material from entering their unclassified network…. because it’s still classified and they would have to scrub their computers if it is found. You need to remember in their world “classified” is “classified” there is no grey area. If you put classified information (regardless of where it came from) onto a computer network that is unclassified it creates a policy exception that must be remedied.
People who possess a security clearance are in a catch-22 situation. They are subject to the “need to know” standard for accessing classified information. I would say that 99.9% of the publicly published information would fall well outside that standard for rank and file government workers. Without a need to know they can’t justify accessing the documents even if they have a higher clearance.
But, the information is available and my belief that we are a voyeur society is affirmed each time we entice people to reach for the forbidden indulgence. (I’m guilty too)
This is a good enunciation of the, admittedly bizarre, logic for the blocking. And as long as you can keep your mind within the bubble where that logic applies, it appears to make sense.
The Intercept’s story could have been slightly more educational if the reporter had read comments on the Guardian’s similar story about a year ago. I have no idea whether the DOD is being unclear or the Intercept is refusing to listen because it would ruin a great story. As you explain, the DOD has two computer networks — one classified and one unclassified. The unclassified network must be kept free of classified information, under military rules, even if that classified information has been spread worldwide. Computer specialists are assigned to scrub the unclassified computers, and a lot more scrubbing is necessary when military employees are reading the latest leak on their work computers. To avoid a waste of money and personpower, the military would prefer that employees not read leaked stuff on work computers. There is no delusion that the DOD policy will prevent anybody from seeing the material. There is a hope that the DOD unclassified network can be kept relatively free of forbidden material, as specified by the rules. Military employees can do their browsing on the nearest non-US-government computer, of which there are many all over the world.
This is hilariously similar to the situation where the “Church” of Scientology has vilified the internet and told their marks (er . . . paritioners) to avoid looking at anything anti-scientology because it might contain confidential info (not to mention truths that they don’t want their own people to know or be able to evaluate). Same seems to go here: “If they see the truth exposed in public, we won’t be able to trust them anymore.”
Good news! More death threats for glenn!! Stay posted! Salman Rushdie is glad you are surpassing him. And. Remember people who copywrited his work in translation died for him!! Way to go boys!
This is nothing new, the military has been blocking web sites for many years. One day you can go to the site, the next day you can’t. They usually wouldn’t admit that they were blocked and sometimes unblocked them after a time. It’s all necessary for implementing the burgeoning police state.
This same information is available on the public domain. The Military Intelligence ( an oxymoron ) is quite humorous. This warning is the same as telling troops not to drink beer off duty.
O/T
A moving tribute to James Foley, killed in Syria by Terrorists™ intentionally brought into being by the West’s foreign policy and their brutal wars against innocent civilians also known as human beings.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/defense/these-are-the-stories-james-foley-lost-his-life-to-tell-20140819
Lauren thinks this guy is a sick bastard. What the fuck kind of people do you attract her anyway? She wants to add that they did BURN PEOPLE to death in the Middle Ages and they did throw fire on the wood to die faster. So if you like be headwinds for the mentality if one in the Middle Ages go right fucking for it. And Lauren was sick about drone killings. Then we told her they want her kids dead and she listened to us BECIASE you fuckers don’t give a shit about any one but your fucking selves.
My condolences to his family
And the families of all Iraqi and Syrians who have been murdered by these terrorist and all the others who came before them, this includes the US terror drones that kill thousands all over the world.
Yes, I concur. The horror our government has inflicted on human beings for not being enough like us and whose torture and suffering is profitable to the very few, is unconscionable. To *feel* remorse for the terror inflicted in our name is a sign of weakness to some, but not to me or to you, an obviously evolved human.
How much did you pay them Glenn?
You can’t pay Glenn to install encryption; who do you think they lined up with? Laura, the smart one, Max.
+1
Having worked on secure un unsecure military networks i don’t find this email strange at all. There are strict rules on where classified information lives on military networks just viewing the site has the potential of transfering classified information across non-secure networks which is a direct violation of protocol and usually results is a “scrubbing” of that network.
It’s difficult to find a more strident critic of the US gov’t than myself – especially the DoD. I must be in the top 0.00001% of critics. But this story is hype. While the DoD certainly engages in censorship, this article does not show any censorship. DoD policy regarding the handling of classified materials on their _own_ networks is and ought to be their own decision. And, in this case, their policy is quite sensible… a secure network tasked with enforcing information classification ought to require that no classified information is ever present in unclassified systems, no matter whether it is accessed from public sources or not. This makes it possible to audit unclassified systems and ensure that _no_ classified information is _ever_ present on them, for any reason.
I’m getting more and more disappointed with TI with every passing week.
The truth is classified,and we don’t want our morale to be destroyed with the fact we are fighting the wrong enemies.
Or in other words, “ignorance is bliss.”
I’d imagine that investigators and auditors within DOD’s Office of the Inspector General probably do not appreciate being blocked from information that directly relates to their oversight function. I mean, Joe Blow can read TI’s latest leaked document in his underwear in the comfort of his basement, but not the DOD personnel responsible for “combat[ing] fraud, waste and abuse in the Department of Defense”!?
http://www.dodig.mil/About_Us/index.html
Well, the aim of this is clear. It isn’t to protect classified information, it’s to keep their footsoldiers ignorant of reality outside of armed-forces-approved sources of information. Wouldn’t want the troops to start thinking un-American thoughts, like “maybe Snowden ISN’T a traitor,” or “hey, that constitution we swore to protect prohibits spying on our own citizens, wouldn’t that make the NSA a domestic enemy?”
The Intercept staff should get together and have some badges made for themselves. Badges of Honour.
exceptionalism
Do to GG they may soon ban the letter G from the alphabet.
Very first comment BTL this article is from Rodger Asai who said –
Keeping in mind the polls that show 87% (was it?) don’t trust the government, and presuming the rate is not that much different in the military, I submit this off limits classification ought to bring a slew of new readers, by hook or by crook, to The Intercept.
This isn’t about keeping information from the troops, this is about establishing the precedent of banning certain websites. Today the ban is for military personnel only, but once it is normalized and accepted, they will move on to other sites.
Undoubtedly. I’m noticing some websites have simply poof! disappeared for me*, while others take an eternity to load. I expect soon they’ll be disappeared too. What good will the internet be for me then?
Still, for most curious people, the effect of a ban is stimulation of the will to break it.
Yesterday, while just beginning to copy pages from a site detailing info the non-lethal weapons manufacturer Pedinska had linked to, it went 404 on me before I could finish the screen shot… I mean in a micro-second.
The US has banned (impounded) thousands of websites. It has total control of all .com, .net and .org domains.
I tried to buy a John Lennon album, “Some time in New York City”, on a base exchange.
The officers in charge claimed it was on the shelf by mistake, and for my own protection they would not sell it to me because I might sign an enclosed petition to end deportation proceedings against Lennon.
Nixon had the FBI on him.
So, the authoritarianism of the US Neoliberal Empire grows.
Those who consider the US a democracy belong with the climate change deniers.
Many continue to insist that democracy actually exists here…the question isn’t whether or not democracy exists in the USA. The question that should be asked is whether or not democracy (or any other form of association) actually works….sorry to say resoundingly that democracy does not work, never did, never will.
Many of the founders insisted that a complete and systematic change in leadership ought to occur ever few years. Which naturally leads to the question of voting.
Emma Goldman warned that if voting ever changed anything, it would be made illegal.
Love and anarchy must rule. Enjoy this movie–> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070061/
Climate change deniers?I would ask why do you have faith in serial liars?Maybe US who don’t get religious fervor over a maybe change that we aint gonna and can’t do a thing about believe that much more important things we can change,such as war forever and neofeudalism.
It’s Quixote like, this tilting at windmills.Are they going to curtail the war machines and jets,commercial and military,that pollute with those hydrocarbons?
A colossal misdirection.Man will adapt,as always,unless the warmongers snuff us.
So copy the site to a site with a different name – “Americans for Americans” sounds patriotic enough.
Wait until the Marines on the ground get captured by ISIS and get beheaded on Youtube.
A creation of the CIA and the Israeli/Saudi mob begins slaughtering US soldiers?
Almost everything that Snowden/Assange/Manning have published was beneficial and even the POTUS
has said as much.Manning gets 20 years,Assange and Snowden both seek asylum overseas…
Thank god that America protects whistleblowers…..
People with top security clearance prevented from reading public articles. Does that even make sense?
I expect the Guardian reporting blocked would include ‘searching for steele’ (the documentary on clandestine torture and death squads can be tied to the Pentagon)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2013/mar/06/james-steele-america-iraq-video
The real issue here would be (my opinion) exposing soldiers to materials (crimes) undermining ‘espirit de corps’ or is a morale issue hinging on awareness. This would be entirely unnecessary if it were the case of a state apparatus on the up and up … a sort of self incrimination by the military high command
For those who prefer the satire:
http://ronaldthomaswest.com/2014/04/07/thuck-norris/
^ Not for the politically correct or faint of heart
Keep posting the links to other news reports which the mass media has buried. Everyones responsibility to break their stranglehold on the mass media. Dont let them censor the Internet and keep posting to support freedom of speech and fearless journalism. Congratulations to The Intercept you are winning.
This is what you get when you agree to work for the intelligence industry. You sign the paper agreeing to be a dog of the military, and are then surprised when they put a leash on you? Please.
Perhaps they know curiosity kills the cat and want to see how many people will obey the order. I hear they have pretty good surveillance technology..
Print Intercept articles out. Post them on a lampost, mail copies of it to every military member you can think of. Leave them on buses. On benches. Make sure you wear dark glasses and hoody when doing so to avoid face recognition systems.
The day is coming when we will have to log on to the internet with a retinal scan. Once there we can peruse the list of “approved” websites.
It might also be a good idea to print out a copy of the cover of “50 Shades of Grey” and glue this on to the cover of your copy of “Nowhere to Hide” so as to avoid being reported when reading it in a public place.
Thanks Bill Owen.
Although there is much ironic truth in your warning and sage advice…I really needed a good laugh.
:)
Bans and banning. Twitter just announced that it will ban users posting videos/pics of the Foley beheading. Videos and pictures of brown people beheading brown people are still fine, although the call to ban them has probably already started.
This is how it is done, you start with the most outrageous and work your way down to banning “posts critical of, or insulting to, members of the government, the military or the police.”
http://huff.to/1q0yqPP
Anyone wishing to diss Julian Assange, Glenn Greenwald or “moslims” is of course free to do so. As you were!
“We have been and are actively suspending accounts as we discover them related to this graphic imagery. Thank you https://t.co/jaYQBKVbBF
— dick costolo (@dickc) August 20, 2014″
Mr. Dick is just concerned that the “ill-trained” Militarized Police in United States will pick up beheading tips from their cohorts in the CIA/ISIS/Mercenary forces.
No worries on that score Lyra1. They don’t even want you to come near them:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/08/19/im-a-cop-if-you-dont-want-to-get-hurt-dont-challenge-me/
A more naked admission of the depths to which the police have sunk has never been written.
We are all Iraqis now.
Welcome to CheckPoint America!
LYRA- Don’t forget School of the Americas (SOA) –> http://www.soaw.org/about-us/soa-watch-council
LYRA: RE: cohorts—PS–here’s a better more current link for the SOA—> http://www.soaw.org/news/news-alerts/4203-soa-grad-garcia-linked-to-killings
Death of a conscience — Your part in it
The intercept is exposing government corruption, that is the crux of it. So, the government is ordering it’s people to be corrupt by doing a most corrupt thing in helping to stop the exposure of such corruption.
Such is an example of why those in our military have a dead conscience and feel not the slightest guilt when helping to make babies into body parts.
“Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist”. – Edmund Burke
The people have submitted to corruption, in part, through brainwashing by advertising techniques that wound them to their core and offer them “consumerism” to heal the pain they cause. Such distraction from the real source of their dissatisfaction has corrupted them and enabled the corrupt Elite to seize power over them incrementally until we find now they are in near complete control.
unfortunately true.
Congratulations, Intercept, for making the US government’s Official Shit List! Our innocent protectors in the military themselves need protection from information that may cause them to question the rightness of their god-given mission. As Fearless Leader says: “Viewing potentially classified material (even material already wrongfully released in the public domain) from unclassified equipment will cause you long term security issues.” For an explanation, look up “friendly fire”.
One thing that I learned during my WWII stint in the U.S. Navy was that if there was an indirect, obtuse or otherwise STUPID way of accomplishing something of a trivial nature, the U.S. Government was sure to have found it, although they did not always have a corner on the market it might present. The events described here, while making it all too apparent that time has not diminished that “capability”, also confirm the utter naivete of the American people when they allow generous sums of their hard-earned dollars to flow into that bottomless cesspool which continues to grow at an alarming rate. Far from learning from their bottomless pit of mistakes, these serial “mistake-ists” would rather slip-up, suppress and squelch than to examine, enable and excel!
As I might have anticipated, time would not improve that
“George Santayana’s maxim, ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned
to repeat it,’ is invoked often precisely because it is so seldom heeded.”
— Yves Smith
I started on a long rant but I pitched it. She nailed it . . .
not even close
Personally, I don’t think the military cares about people reading online. I’m betting that the real purpose of this policy is to cutoff off access to Intercept upload feature and be releasing any documents to the Intercept.
Not sure many savvy whistleblowers would hit “upload” from inside a .mil domain.
Wasn’t the last leak a big printed stack of paper?
Yea, i agree. However I think this behavior by Military is in line with destroying hard drives in basements. Same mentality.
Lew Rockwell’s site was blocked from military personel in Iraq too.
Can’t wait to see if the constitution ends up on a banned list.
They don’t need to ban the constitution. Our Federally mandated school curricula has been teaching a corrupted, unrecognizable interpretation of the Bill of Rights. The newest generation coming up will be so ignorant, I fear, as to repeat that the definition of freedom protected by that document is the right to obey without question or doubt the absolute correctness of the order of authority.
Now…now….seer. Remember not to discuss “conspiracy theories” regarding UN driven one world order plans like “Common Core Curriculum.” The people might being to catch on!
Damn! “being” should read “begin” Dyslexia also manifests in typing.
But since I’m in the comment anyway, I would also like to caution you not to discuss “Agenda 21″ either because we wouldn’t want the people of the United States to worry about the government grabbing their land and/or other real assets for their central banking buddies.
displexiks untie!
hunnee kno wun noz displexia liek a Minkoff don u no.
Oh wonderful and just too funny — thanks Ryan G.! This is all so redolent of the Vatican’s former ‘Index Librorum Prohibitorum’, grounded in its conviction and its fear that by assimilating certain literature a Christian, however devout, will get possessed by the Devil. And, indeed, as others have noted, the NSA does share certain features with religions including, perhaps foremost, a fear of the Devil = terrorists (or even all tourists, come to that).
To any of the lawyers that comment here.
Is it a lawful order for a military commander to order a subordinate to curtail his access to public broadcasts or the public domain? Military persons are only private citizens and still obtain their rights under the constitution, yes?
am curious. thanks.
Though silly on its face, the order is lawful. They are restricting websites and content based on classification of the content. Classified content is not allowed on unsecured systems, even if that content is sitting on CNN.com for the world to see.
But really, it’s a tantrum being thrown by people used to total secrecy – or secrecy partially dictated by old media.
Thanks Ted. Much appreciated.
Ted, even if the content was exposing a crime? Is the order still lawful? After all, what if the story was about military coverup of mass civilian deaths classified as ‘secret’. I would think there are some boundaries to an order that directly opposes some other law.
The blocking of The Intercept and the notice is grounded in issues of classification and what belongs on unsecured networks. The content itself can’t change the classification. Even if the story exposes criminality or controversy, the military can still prohibit classified documents on computers that are unsecured for that level of secret data – which is most of the computers used by average military personnel. It has nothing to do with common-sense notions of what should be exposed and what should remain secret.
Its not a 1st amendment issue as it stands. If there was evidence that the military was persecuting people for simply reading things they didn’t like, with no security justification, then there might be grounds for some kind of argument. But for now, they’re blocking TI because it hosts classified documents. AS a practical matter, having docs published in the media is a type of declassification, but not legally and certainly not to the standards of internal IT sec of the US military.
great explanation. Thanks.
vvrp
Government being government. In a weird way it’s kind of reassuring; as a programmer, to me it’s important that a system at least behave in a consistent and predictable manner if it’s not going to work as intended. That makes it easier to find and fix the bugs.
“Good old General Hand Grenade…”
The all purpose tool for ruling out the rules? That has an awesome sounding ring to it…
Who the frack is Trooper?
I like Little Feat’s “Crazy Captain Gun Boat Willie,” myself, if we’re going for that out of control leadership role. He tidies up by taking out his own crew; that’ll show ’em.
“It’s not my fault, it’s some guy named General Protection!” – Ratbert
The problem they face is that it will be hard to identify potential leakers if the material appears on many computers simply because people were downloading it from the web.
You could be the actual author of one of these leaked PowerPoints. But go The Intercept and view a redacted, publicly available version of it? There will be consequences.
Nonsense like this illustrates the true intention of these rules.
I have been following “The Intercept” every day for a couple of months;
you are fearlessly putting out THE TRUTH on many subjects —
especially subjects that the US Gov’t is frantically trying to suppress!
This threatening ban by the US military is proof of that!
To me it shows that “The Intercept” is REALLY putting out the TRUTH!!!!!!!!!!!
and you are scaring the S**T out of the PTW [powers that were]!
Hopefully the military people who are being told this will not be
unthinking, unconscious, and naive and say “yes sir” to this threatening demand.
Instead hopefully they will think:
“they don’t want us to see that site?
I wonder why!
I will look at the site and find out!”
In fact, I feel — and I would guess that “The Intercept” staff would also feel —
that the US Military has done a FAVOR to “The Intercept” by making it known
to ALL servicemen/women that “The Intercept” even exists!
Most of them probably never heard of it, and this will hopefully make them very curious!
Thus the military’s bullying demand will further the cause of truth, instead of stifling it!
Awesome move in this world-wide chess game, US Military!
I’ll bet Glenn Greenwald is jumping for joy!
That rascal and FEARLESS truth-sayer!
What an inspiration he and Edward Snowden and all the staff at “The Intercept”
are for the whole world!
My first attempt appears to not have take
When I was in the Marines part of what you got at each new base you checked into was an “off limits” list. These were places that were deemed dangerous or otherwise inappropriate for service persons.
We naturally referred to them as the “where to go” lists.
So actual effect of rule should help increase your viewership (just not from their work computers).
Forbidden fruit draws the most flies.And a sizable part of our military today,probably don’t speak or read English,as we use foreign mercenaries and then give them citizenship,like the old Roman Empire,which led directly to its collapse,as the citizens didn’t want to die for their nation anymore,they were too fat,rich,and had better diversions.
And why would a foreign mercenary be more willing to die for the country that pays him?
So what’s the moral we’re supposed to take from this? We native citizens need to be more willing to die for our nation? Great idea, you go first. I’ll be along in a bit.
The Roman Empire’s collapse wasn’t due to hiring foreign mercenaries and giving them citizenship. It was due to hiring foreign mercenaries and then screwing them over. (Among other things.) Also high on the list was going broke due to the expense of trying to maintain a military large enough to control and defend such a huge territory (not unlike trying to fight a Global War on Terror).
Don’t forget their fiat currency and run away inflation; it made paying for stuff really difficult without going broke.
Thanks for the chuckle. :)
… any employees caught viewing classified material in the public domain will face “long term security issues.”
You know, if I were such an employee, had stayed current with the various reports done on NSA surveillance to date, and unless I had the technical skill of, say, an @ioerror, @ashk4n, or @csoghoian, I’d sincerely worry whether my home computer was pwnd. And, I might even be careful of the computers at the public library since, typically, in my experience, you have to log in as a card holder to access them. I look at the computer/digital world in strange and convoluted ways since about June of last year.
Sincerely. Thanks Edward Snowden!
Am I supposed to be afraid? I sat for hours in shacks pretending to be nuke broasted so we could all roll like the Kennedys in cars big enough to live in. Note to self, find big car. My Prom Queen hair was not to be for the sake of unborn big flat screen TV arses like the soul logging this one into Tempora’s Toilet Haul.
The dress we found for a steal in Saar was a success as we’ve always been well threaded, but that Elizabethan straight hair look was not what I intended took. The band sucked so we all went down to the Bitburger for some pils and Barry White…Rollin’ with the Walloon’s Queen. Pomp is not for us and we prefer a good beat to circumstances.
You’re welcome. Now leave an old lady to watch this rerun of how the guys who wanted all the news on their enemies got the blues for being so shite at the game. If everyone is your enemy, then you ain’t got any friends, Nixon. I got LOTS of friends. OMG, have you seen that Dick Cavett going over that Watergate thingy? He’s got to be Wallony!
BTW, Intercept, he gets my jokes, and even posts some of them. Dick’s cool.
Guess what, GCHQ, you didn’t get us all. Spartacus says, “Hay.” How you think you can win a hay pitching war beats me like a drum, dumdums.
Thanks Mr. Gallagher for an article which doesn’t involve direct war action….it is a welcome oasis for the mind.
Congratulations to TI staff. This DOD ban on your site is sure sign that you are doing something right. Keep up the great work!
LYRA: there’s sure to be much more traffic, some will be drones and provacatuers,, though
As almost any wise soldier will tell you, “a thinking soldier is a bad thing”, and some of them might have unapproved thoughts if they ever found out what it is they actually defend.
But seriously folks, does this mean the military/stasi sock-puppets infesting these comment threads can never read the articles and comments they are ordered to discredit? How do they post stasi disinfo here if they cannot request a page? Bots only from here out? Are their bots that good?
And since the civilian and military sector merger — let’s just call it The Stasi State now — who does get to look at this site, other than terrorists?
– confused, but laughing again
does this mean the military/stasi sock-puppets infesting these comment threads can never read the articles and comments they are ordered to discredit?
lol. Hadn’t thought of that. If that ain’t shootin’ yourself in your own dick, then nothing is.
System.err.println(“Just followin’ orders, ma’am.”);
” Classified content is not allowed on unsecured systems.
Methinks they think that the sockpuppet computers are the “secure systems”. At least that’s what Snowden told em’…
That saying about a thinking soldier being a bad thing surely only applies at most to combat branches. I was in military intelligence, where thought was very much required. Same goes for military medicine. And surely many other branches.
But even with respect to the combat branches, I wonder to what extent it is true. In combat, things go wrong. The saying goes that plans only survive the first contact with the enemyl. You want people with the mental flexibility to respond to changing conditions, and for that ability to exist at least in noncommissioned officers as well as commissioned officers, since in combat a commissioned officer can easily be incapacitated. You also want people who can accurately report changing conditions to their superiors, which again is something that requires a high degree of intelligence. This was supposedly why both the U.S. Army and the Wehrmacht to the Red Army in World War Two, as decisions in the Red Army generally had to be made by the commissioned officers. Supposedly this was still true of the Soviet armed forces during the Cold War.
This sentence no verb…”was superior to?” “was more flexible than?”
At some point, our military will probably be composed of robot soldiers operated remotely. How autonomous they will be is an open question; but they will have at least some capability for making their own decisions. So how intelligent do you want your future robot soldier to be?
If the weirdos who post to The Intercept letters pages are actually paid sockpuppets, they are more likely working for “think tanks”, PACs, other advocacy groups, or contract companies than the government itself.
The sheer number of nuts in our society is shockingly large. They tend to be unable to keep steady jobs, and have disproportionate amounts of free time. You really don’t need to invoke sockpuppetry to explain the percentage of nutjobs in these precincts. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but the odds don’t demand it.
Helen, an Iraqi vet, once told me that everywhere she went in Iraq, in the mess halls, the gyms, the offices, FOX News would be blaring from the screens.
Lies are fine.
Truth not so much.
RUSH LIMBAUGH is on ARMED FORCES RADIO!!!
Peaceniks aren’t good for war. Limpball hates peaceniks.
Heck, I couldn’t load the Washington Post front page on the MRW wifi at Guantanamo Bay in 2010. But Fox News Channel was on the big screen TVs at the Gold Hill Galley every day at lunchtime, courtesy of American Forces Network Television.
Well….service members are also permitted to view CNN, C-Span, and NBC/MSNBC because the DOD must retain the illusion of choice. And of course….there are internal news channels and reports which are highly encouraged.
It’s the illusion of choice – just like the illusion of free press and the right to assemble which are being eroded – I’d hate to be “that” service-person” saying, “Hey, would you all mind if we changed the channel to CNN (or NPR, or C-Span…)
Actually, you can’t “change the channel” on an AFN-TV feed. The AFN picks the news channel for a particular time slot. They do carry some CNN, like at breakfast, but lunchtime at Guantanamo is the Fox News Channel.
I say, live it, or live with it.
@ Sillyputty and Res Ispa Loquitur:
Clarrification: In Conus (within the US) there may be an option to change the channel particularly in “quarters” (living) situations where the contracted signal provider (could be exclusively Military Signal’s Corp.) determines the channel line-up.
Overseas, depending on the duty station, is another matter; particularly in common areas like mess halls, where the AFN-TV feed is exclusively selective in broadcast. No choice at all in common areas and quarters are lucky to have bunks let alone provisions for entertainment.
That said….yes the illusions are many.
Mandatory Orwell Quote:
“Mandatory Orwell Quote” – Spot on.
Thank you, Lyra1, Res Ipsa Loquitur & Bill Owen.
The link is to another, short video Orwell quote that is apropos.
I learn something new here every day…
Uh,what’s the diff,really.They re all neolibcon Zionist yuppie scum with the empathy of sharks and souls on ice.Every stinkin one of em.
That is so pathetic. I have been known to request the lords and lasses of waiting rooms to get me a channel other than Fox because it was giving me headaches.
And the government criticizes China for blocking access to sites not approved by their government. Oh, the hypocrisy is mind-boggling.
Okay, I am fine with this. Soldiers are “just dumb animals” and we should not trouble their “beautiful minds” with the truth.
But they will have to pry my lol cat videos from my cold dead hands!
Gasp!!!!! Leave my kitties alone you animals!
Did you see the cat video where they hack you?The Graun had an article yesterday.(God,has the Guardian died or what?I read that a guy named Alex Koppleman runs the US edition.Another Zioliar,just like that Zioliar Tomaskey,who started it on its run of BS)
Not the actual vid, or at least I hope not!
NIce to see you again. Hope things are well with you.
Now broadcasting on all Military channels:
“There is nothing wrong with your television. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are now in control of the transmission. We control the horizontal and the vertical. We can deluge you with a thousands channels, or expand one single image to crystal clarity and beyond. We can shape your vision to anything our imagination can conceive. For the next hour, we will control all that you see and hear.”
For the next hourFor the rest of your life.Remember Polyphemus (the cyclops) in the Odysseus story? The blinded giant striking out at what he can not see, fooled into letting his tormenters go by a simple ruse. The military mind in this reported case reminds me of that. What if some clearanced guy’s teenage daughter reads the Intercept and tells dad about it? Sheesh.
I suppose there is some comfort to be found in the fact that they are not yet able to employ similar filtering mechanisms across the web, but folks should view this as yet another huge red flag in the battle over net neutrality and should be bombarding their congressional representatives’ offices drawing lines in the sand over who will or will not be supported in upcoming elections.
I realize that the effectiveness of that is highly questionable, but really, if you’re not even willing to do that – let alone support EFF, ACLU and the many other organizations who are working incessantly to maintain your right to information – then you ought to just roll over, get comfortable and start practicing how to say, “How loud would you like me to squeal, sir?” to ensure maximum levels of subservience in your voice.
dont be so sure that they arent able to do just that – they are in control of the infrastructure.
the outcry however would be unreal.
A badge of honor!!
Agreed!
USG to military personnel: “just do what we say, don’t think about it”, “kill those people”.
The military personnel are sort of like prisoners, we should fight for their individual rights to not follow orders they personally believe are wrong. Manipulation of foreign policy by abuses from within the intelligence community are the primary threat to national security.
Are they also forbidding these same people from accessing The Intercept from their personal computers away from the workplace? Isn’t that what they did with the Wikileaks website a few years back?
If it’s not overt, then it’s at least implied.
Which implies that TPTB also have access to their personal computers, but I guess we already knew that. I wonder, does the Strategic Command logo appear on their personal computers too?
Dunno about their computers but I’m pretty sure it’s branded on their asses. ;-}
The ones they wear their helmets on. ;)
“Viewing potentially classified material (even material already wrongfully released in the public domain) from unclassified equipment will cause you long term security issues. This is considered a security violation.”
Considering that the NSA falls under the umbrella of the Dept of Army, it would be safe to assume that they are also collecting data on their service members. If a service member views TI on their personal machine (which is an unclassifed machine) in their home environment and gets caught by the NSA it would be considered a “security violation.”
I bet the legal definition could be stretched enough to include inactive, separated, non-reserve members performing the same class of action.
About that Air Force Wikileaks test balloon, sorry, “ban”…
http://bit.ly/1li3ewM
So will this one stick?
“The guidance also warned that the families faced prosecution as spies if they read the leaked diplomatic cables.”
This may be where start to see the breakdown between encroachment on civil liberties versus the “right” of the state in personal affairs.
One can hope.
Thanks Bill, I hadn’t seen that.
Congratulations. They’re noticing.
And feeling threatened.
Yup.
This reminds me of the “off limits” lists published by each base of local establishments that had been deemed dangerous or inappropriate for military personnel.
These were naturally referred to us as the “where to go” lists.
It appears military intelligence is at it again.