Jesus H Christ

The Army admitted Thursday to not only restricting access to The Guardian news website at the Presidio of Monterey, as reported in Thursday's Herald, but Armywide.

  Monterey Herald

I find that kind of thing stunningly ridiculous. These articles are being talked about and quoted EVERYwhere.  And all Army personnel except those in combat or boot camp have homes they go to and spouses that work outside the Army.  They have social network accounts and email.  They are going to know everything that the Guardian prints. Preventing linking directly to the Guardian's website is just an exercise in a very stupid form of censorship.

Sources at the Presidio said Jose Campos, the post's information assurance security officer, sent an email to employees early Thursday saying The Guardian's website was blocked by Army Cyber Command "in order to prevent an unauthorized disclosure of classified information."

Disclosure to whom? For the love of Pete, the disclosure is not being stopped because Army Cyber Command blocks a website to Army computers. Who is this Army Cyber Commander? Besides a certifiable idiot?

[Gordon Van Vleet, an Arizona-based spokesman for the Army Network Enterprise Technology Command, or NETCOM] said the department does not determine what sites its personnel can choose to see on the DOD system, but "relies on automated filters that restrict access based on content concerns or malware threats."

He said it would not block "websites from the American public in general, and to do so would violate our highest-held principle of upholding and defending the Constitution and respecting civil liberties and privacy."

The Army doesn't control the American public's access to the internet.  So, they'll not be blocking anything from us.  And I’m pretty sure they couldn’t get away with it if they did have control over it, or their high principle of defending the Constitution and respecting civil liberties and privacy might find itself dimmed beyond notice.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.