Military Blackout: Army Blocks Access to NSA News Reports…’The Army is scared of its own soldiers’
Sarah Lazare
CommonDreams.com
Friday, June 28, 2013
The U.S. Army is blocking all internet access to the Guardian’s coverage of the NSA spying scandal to prevent service members and military employees from leaking information themselves, the Monterey Herald revealed Thursday.
The censorship at Army bases across the U.S. is in place to ward off further leaks and ensure ‘network hygiene,’ said Gordon Van Vleet, spokesman for the Army’s NETCOM network. He told the Monterey Herald:
“We make every effort to balance the need to preserve information access with operational security, however, there are strict policies and directives in place regarding protecting and handling classified information.”
Yet, supporters of whistleblower rights argue that media filtering from the Army command ultimately cannot stop soldiers from learning about them or prevent them from potentially acting on their own consciences.
“The Army is scared of its own soldiers finding out what groups like the Army are up to,” said Ryan Harvey, organizer with the Bradley Manning Support Network. “If anyone has information about the actions of the U.S. government it is the soldiers themselves. Society has this distorted mythology of what the U.S. does in the world. Members of the military, who are put through hell in the name of U.S. interests, know what’s going on.”
The Rest…HERE
