My Space and UTube off limits to US Military overseas.

[pair8head]

Pentagon blocks soldiers' access to popular Web sites


When a roadside bomb killed Spc. Anthony Bradshaw and five other Fort Lewis Stryker soldiers last week, friends and family members immediately paid respects on his MySpace.com site.



· Videos show Iraq war through troops' eyes
The final goodbyes followed a trail of messages from weeks before in which they used the Web site, which included photos Bradshaw posted from Iraq, to stay close. "I can't wait til you get home," said one message. "Well stay safe. Only a couple months to go," another one said, before news of Bradshaw's death.

Now, soldiers in Iraq will no longer have access to MySpace, YouTube or 10 other sites under a new Defense Department policy.

Citing security concerns and technological limits, the Pentagon has cut off access to those sites for all personnel using the military's computer network. The change limits use of the popular outlets for service members on the front lines, who regularly post videos and journals.

"The military sees it as operational security. But for individual soldiers who are concerned with keeping in touch with loved ones and family members back home, it's going to be about morale," said former National Guard Sgt. Rob Kauder, who posted a dozen videos from his yearlong deployment on YouTube, including a tribute to a squad member who died.

Kauder, who deployed with the 81st Brigade in 2004 and is now an online producer for a Spokane television station, knew plenty of soldiers who relied on sites such as MySpace or PhotoBucket to instantly share messages and photos with people back home.

"From a morale standpoint, this is something that's really going to kick them where it hurts," he said.

Memos about the change went out in February, and it took effect last week. It does not affect the Internet cafes that soldiers in Iraq use that are not connected to the Defense Department's network. The cafe sites are run by a private vendor, FUBI (For U.S. By Iraqis).

Also, the Pentagon said that many of the military computers on the front lines in Iraq that are on the department's network had previously blocked the YouTube and MySpace sites.

The ban does not affect other sites, such as Yahoo, and does not prevent soldiers from sending messages and photos to their families by e-mail.

As blogs and video-sharing become more common, the military has voiced increasing concern about service members revealing details about military operations or other information about equipment or procedures that will aid the enemy.

"These actions were taken to enhance and increase network security and protect the use of the bandwidth," said Col. Gary Keck, a Pentagon spokesman.

The Pentagon said that use of the video sites in particular was putting a strain on the network and opening it to potential viruses or penetration by so-called "phishing" attacks in which scam artists try to steal sensitive data by mimicking legitimate Web sites.

After the warnings of the shutdown went out, military members were allowed to seek waivers if the sites were necessary for their jobs. Often insurgent groups post videos, including ones of attacks or -- in some high-profile cases -- of U.S. or coalition soldiers who have been captured or killed.

If the restrictions are intended to prevent soldiers from giving or receiving bad news, they could also prevent them from providing positive reports from the field, said Noah Shachtman, who runs a national security blog for Wired magazine.

"This is as much an information war as it is bombs and bullets," he said. "And they are muzzling their best voices."

Kauder, the former National Guard infantryman, thinks the new policy also is meant to block gritty firsthand accounts from hitting a public weary of the war.

But he, too, wonders whether it will silence positive stories from the war zone, while those with a "bone to pick" will find ways to circumvent the system.

"They can say operational security, they can say it's because of the bandwidth load, but when you look specifically at the war, it's got two fronts. It's got the real front in Iraq, where soldiers and Marines are going out every day and fighting, and then you've got the PR war," he said.


BLOCKED
Among the sites covered by the military's ban on Internet use:

Video-sharing sites: YouTube, Metacafe, IFilm, StupidVideos and FileCabi.

Social networking sites: MySpace, BlackPlanet and Hi5.

Music sites: Pandora, MTV, 1.fm and live365.

Photo-sharing site: Photobucket.



This report includes information from The Associated

[ToplessRideFL]

Send them to Buffett News.......

[chippewa]

Send them to Buffett News.......

Can't wait for the new thread:

My advice to the <strike>Mods</strike> Military Generals....

[pojo]

These sites have been banned stateside for a while... It's something I've gotten used to.

[pair8head]

I can understand the reasoning. We certainly don't want to incure any losses because some asshat was reading about troop movements on My Space. Just hope there is something the troops can do in their spare time to take their minds off of the situation, you know what I mean?

[Dezdmona]

Yea, I have a friend in Iraq who can't view my blog, (he couldn't before his deployment either).
I understand the security issues,

he says:

Can't do photobucket, myspace and blogs. If we allowed the troops to get on any of that, our bandwidth would disappear and no work would be getting done, so...

I just end up sending notes/pictures via email.

We can't IM either.

[ph4ever]

While I understand this measure, I wonder if part if this ban has to do with the negative war opinions posted by soldiers on those sites?

[Dezdmona]

Too bad the troops can't see this (YouTube):

Jake Shimabukuro - Star Spangled Banner

[SchoolGirlHeart]

While I understand this measure, I wonder if part if this ban has to do with the negative war opinions posted by soldiers on those sites?

Connie, this is network security related and has been in the works for quite a while. As pojo pointed out, these sites have been shut off in the States for several months already. It's simply a matter of protecting the bandwidth and integrity of the network for work use. In places where there are internet cafes on base run outside the military network, service personnel will still be abe to access myspace, etc.

The situation is an unfortunate but necessary fact of life.

[MelliJellyBean]

Looks like facebook is still available to them? It didn't mention it in any of the stories.

I'm not suprised. I can definitely see security issues with myspace at least. Facebook seems to be a little more secure. It's nice seeing updates from my friends in Iraq though!

[chippewa]

There are so many photo-sharing sites, I wonder why Photobucket is the only one blocked?

[Skibo]

I am not military and my company has greater restrictions on internet access with their computers and network.