Troops Barred From MySpace and YouTube

It is true that many of soldiers post material that should not be posted online. Even meaningless comments matter. It can be very dangerous for all the soldiers if a simple comment like "Yeah, my squad is rolling out to Baghdad tommorrow, so I probably won't get to hit you back until Friday when we come back. I have to get to sleep, we leave around 9am. Talk to you later." is seen by an enemy Iraqi. If he sees the comment, along with other information on a MySpace page such as the high rank of a soldier and what town or FOB they are currently stationed at, then they could pinpoint where a squad is going and plan a sucessful attack.

There are no rules against what a soldier can write when he gets back, so I really don't see how people can think this is a case of censorship. They only banded about 11 sites, so why can't spouses and friends find new ways to communicate such as through Facebook or Yahoo email or any other free email services that are out there. My husband is over there now and I set up a Facebook for him which is almost easier for him to use than MySpace.

this ban is ridiculous. utube and myspace may have their drawbacks, but everybody needs entertainment. not to mention a way to keep in touch and or write down their thoughts. i never thought disciplining soldiers for posting war blogs was right either.

I absolutely applaud the Pentagon for this move. There are too many 'radicals' out there (including the media),that will spin evrything they hear to our troops disadvantage.

I for one believe it is justified to restrict these sites, after all a slip like " mom were headed out to ...........hopefully we will all make it back safely............." can be of great info to our enemies and can put our troops in an unsafe place, people! write letters, is nothing more satisfing for a solider at the end of his/her day, than reading a nice long letter from home.

This makes me very angry, I am the mom of a US army soldier deployed in Iraq. I check myspace everyday to see if he was on there, that way I know that he is okay. He never,ever gave any information about what was going on over there, just a Hi, things are okay to let everyone know that he was safe. I will be much more anxious every day now that this type of communication is cut off for us. Phone calls are few and far between and short, this is the way we communicated. It is very, very upsetting!

I think many of you are missing the point. This isn't particularly a censorship issue. The article said that the sites were banned "...citing 'recreational traffic impacts'..." Let me translate this for you. They want the soldiers to be DOING THEIR JOB WHILE AT WORK, not spending hours a day watching videos of skateboarding dogs or the latest Britney Spears video. I'm sure that many of you who have worked in an office have known of someone who wasted much company time and money browsing the internet, playing games, trawling for porn, searching personals, online gambling, etc. Youtube isn't used for keeping in touch with loved ones (and for the 0.001% of you that post your family videos for your relatives in Oshkosh, we don't need to hear from you). It's for entertainment where anyone can get their 15 minutes of fame. You can waste days and days watching.

I know person that has just got back from Iraq his opoin is this that the move is not to hide the troops opoin from the public because they are behide Bush and the war by a great majority but to protect the troops booth from comprissing info that engager them and there moral. Just because it's guaral war does not mean that info might help the enemy might aciendently show up in a vide. For incendents a video of troops showing there family arund there camp might in the backround show amo storage or guard post that would be of help for planning a bombing or asssault. as for morral all of the negative comment in the emdia and by other people that do not know may bring them down.

unfortunately it is not wrong of the pentagon to do this how easy would it be for a terrorist to access these sites and figure out who is a certain soldiers friends and where he is from. Also some soldiers don't practice good operations security and post things on these sites that they shouldn't. So as long as they have normal e-mail to access then it shouldn't be a problem for the soldiers they just have to let friends and family know which sites to use. As a soldier I'm glad the pentagon is looking out for force protection and maintaining good operations security.

Hello out there.These restrictions are to protect our people over there.Something must have happened to make this a rule.Security is the first thing to think of. As for the military not wanting for families to stay in touch.There is a lot of ways to do that.And for those aren't staying touch,well it could be those people aren't wanting to spent all their time staying in touch with every one.So thats when one family can keep the others informed.The secrets that are kept over there is to protect our people.
Be postive about our military so they can stay postive about them selves while doing a job they chose,and protecting Us and our Country.

Unfortunately rhiannon what you say is so true. I too had a brother and some friends that were in the service there.

I know how much they use to sensor the letters in the old days because of one friend being in a classified section and anything said could be used wrong.

Currently my brother has severed all communication with me for my own protection. Though hard, scarey, and hurtful sometimes, at least as long as there is no soldier at my door I know he is still doing his thing. I lost two brothers already and not doing a thing to endanger this one.

But the internet is a new tool with so many ways to hack in and out, or follow paths backwards, or any number of things that even though innocent, could endanger the lives of fellow soldiers, or even result in failure of a crucial action. Others can use so many programs available to the open market, and no idea of whats available to the military or other markets. But they can zero in on the smallest detail in a picture to discover a location. Something the soldier might not even know is in the background, or if did had no idea of the importance of it to others. But it can happen.

Every time I see something on tv of the actions that are going on, I am grateful for the chance to see and possibly spot someone important to me. Yet at the same time I wonder how the heck they keep their locations or actions or whatever secure when the whole world can see every move. Just doesnt make sense to me at all.

I dont want to censor our people. It is hateful and wrong. But I too want them to be safe. Maybe the military will actually get around to inventing a way of using a site of their own thats secure somehow. A way that all info from soldiers would pass through this system and be carefully checked for security. Have no idea how they would. But the soldiers are already tired, beat down, seperated from the land they love and the loved ones in this land. Cutting them off totally is an act of abuse and cruelty that only defeats our own people even faster then the opposition.

A choice? Mmmmm send an email to someone and get a soldier at my door with condolences. Mmmm not a hard choice to make.

I don't questoin the decision for military security but the Army should at least create a similar avenue for communication with family via a monitored secure site.

Outstanding discussion! It is great to live in a country where young folks can express how they feel without knowing that they will be punished. I do recall having my mail censored back in the very early 1960s while attending classified training. Those violating security were snatched up by the short hairs and individually punished, versus stopping everyone's mail.
If DoD is truly worried then they should monitor (simple keyword scans are probably already being done).
My guess is that if someone really wants to pass on classified info from overseas or info that might jeapordize others that they wouldn't openly post it.
My vote: let the troops communicate with their loved one's as openly as possible.
Again, great discussions.
Dr. Cal (retired Navy Chief)

I am amazed at how many people think they know what is going on!! If you think for one minute you are getting the truth from the media, think again. We need to leave the running of this war to those "who really know" what is going on. I agree with the government and actually go a little further..."No Computers." Whatever happened to writing letters? We do not know what the enemy is doing, and they may be watching YouTube and MySpace. We are a nation of spoiled brats, and stomp our feet when we do not have what we want, and have it now. Grow up and face reality...The enemy wants us dead, and will do whatever is necessary to accomplish that. What are we willing to do? Sit around and complain, or give our support to our military, and let them do their job to keep us safe. So many liberals are so quick to blame President Bush for anything and everything...MY God, give it a rest, and "really think" about our country and our Men and Women in the military.

Its a good idea. All it takes is one person to put up information they dont think is sensative but really is for the enemy to know about troop movments. The last thing you want to do is tell your loved ones what day and time you will be leaving Baghdad and the enemy gets that information and sets up a nice little group of guys outside BIAP it would be easy to have a group of guys with a few anti-air missles and know to shoot down a plane full of american troops. The troops over there obviously arent paying attention to there opsec and infosec breifings or else they wouldnt have to do this. It might piss people off but it might also save peoples lives.

Remmember (Nam) and why we went? It was to help a people that could not help themselves. In this case we were attacked on our own soil. If the last term President had done his job we would not be there now. However, I still belive that if President Bush Sr. had done his job in the 90s maybe we would not have some many died now. But one thing is for sure no matter what, they will hit us agian somewhere, somehow...
Remember they now have the taste of American's blood on 9/11 and they will return.
If you want us out of Iraq.
You must know there are information leaks going on everyday there. Its a hard thing to except that one of our county's own is a trader, but remember the last time we were attack when men, women, and children were killed by one of our own. This county is not the same county 20 later, when we have more than 30 million elegals from around the world. I offen think how many people in this county have join our own military to do us harm within, before 9/11 ???

Let's start with the argument that we should not be there in the first place. Then will you be blocking sites like Live Leak which has about 70% of their videos coming from Iraq showing our weapons and vehicles in action. That is some YaHoo who doesn't have the balls to go fight in the war can yell "yeehah". The majority of wars are fought for economic gain when we learn this and persecute those that incite them the world will be a better place. I am speaking from experience, so before one of you so-called conservative morons starts hollering grab a rifle and go over there before you cast your judgment.

Would you guys just read what you're posting?! Unbelievable. This is not censorship or govt backed repression of the masses. It is not punishment. It is good sense. Whether or not there is a traffic impact now - there will be soon enough if it is not curtailed. People complained in WW II for the same reasons, but back then there was a sense of patriotism that went beyond party lines, and the vast majority realised it was for their own good. It is also not a question of whether troops are posting outright details about locations, movements, or troop strengths, but one of many small pieces of intel. adding up to a large picture that is useful to the enemy. The comment that implied that Al Qaida wouldn't bother with YouTube or MySpace couldn't be more wrong, in conflict, any information you can get about your enemy is an advantage - don't be bigots - these foreigners are NOT stupid svages, they can and do successfully glean information from computer systems.

Think of it like this - think of the most imortant person you know who is somehow involved in the conflict - if you don't have a brother, sister, parent, or child there, think of your closest friend who does. Now imagine that you are communicating with that person on Myspace, and ask some innocent question - there answer, while innocuous, contains some tiny snippet of info about here thye are moving to next week. Now imagine that information results in the total destruction of their convoy. NOW IMAGINE THAT PERSON IS DEAD.


Are you sorry yet?

Maybe the military should spend some money to create a web site for military personel to contact their loved ones, seems we spend billions trying to restructure and take care of another country, I think its the least we can do
for our men and woman overseas

That way you can monitor the site yourself to make sure there are no security leaks if hat is your concern

Maybe the military should spend some money to create a web site for military personel to contact their loved ones, seems we spend billions trying to restructure and take care of another country, I think its the least we can do
for our men and woman overseas

That way you can monitor the site yourself to make sure there are no security leaks if hat is your concern

sounds like it's time to pick up pen and paper and rely on (whats the term?) snail mail?