Pentagon Block Of Some Internet Sites Hits Home

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Houston Chronicle
May 19, 2007
Sergeant says MySpace was main means of staying in touch here
By Cynthia Leonor Garza, Houston Chronicle
To Miguel Paredes, a 22-year-old Army sergeant on duty in Iraq, logging onto MySpace is a one-stop shop for finding out what his friends and family in Houston are up to.
Most importantly, it's cheap, "not to mention the hassle of buying phone cards," Paredes wrote via a MySpace message to a Chronicle reporter.
So new rules announced by the Pentagon this week, blocking 13 "recreational sites" including MySpace, Hi5 and Youtube from the Department of Defense's computer network, don't sit well with Paredes, who uses his MySpace page as his primary means to let his family know he's OK.
But he also realizes that "many guys post bulletins or blogs with information regarding operations," which is a security risk and one of the reasons why the military has blocked the sites. The video, photo, music and data-swapping sites also take up too much bandwidth, the military said.
Seeking a workaround
Paredes, like other troops and the family and friends cyber-tied to them, is trying to figure out how to reroute his way of communicating. Soldiers in Iraq who don't have private computers will have to rely on Internet cafes that are not military-run to access the restricted Web sites. E-mail from sites such as Yahoo still are allowed.
Despite the change, most agree that security and safety trump a free-rein Internet policy.
"Some of (the soldiers) weren't careful about what they put out there, and I look to the military to keep my son safe," said Kay Gibson, 54, who used instant messaging as a "lifeline" to her son Chris Gibson when he first deployed with the Marines in 2005. The Spring resident recently returned to Iraq as a civilian, and mom and son now keep in touch via MySpace.
"Clearly, the Internet is a big security risk," said Geoff Wawro, director of the Military History Center at the University of North Texas in Denton. "These Web sites are just sort of a main conduit through which soldiers can post all kinds of data without any censorship or control."
Unlike previous wars
The instant communication that today's soldiers have via a worldwide network is a "huge departure" from the screened letter-writing soldiers did in previous wars, Wawro said.
Communicating through sites such as MySpace, Blackplanet and Hi5 removes the middlemen who make sure soldiers are not deliberately or inadvertently leaking sensitive information, Wawro said.
Some information that gets out can be embarrassing and problematic for the military, as was the case with the Abu Ghraib torture photos that outraged the world.
Gibson, whose son works as an aircraft firefighter for a private contractor but spends much of his time on a military base north of Baghdad, said the military's new rules aren't much different from those at many corporations that restrict employee access at work.
The value of having a PC
Trudi White of Tomball, who communicates with her sister Dara Wydler mostly through e-mail and cell phone, said her sister learned during her first deployment the value of having a personal computer. When Wydler returned for her second tour last year, she took a laptop and spare computer parts collected by friends so that she and fellow troops could maintain ties to home.
White's sister sent her an e-mail earlier this week talking about the Pentagon's new restrictions, but she assured her that "communication is alive and well here in Iraq."
 
Back
Top