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Reporting for blogging, sir

5 comments on Reporting for blogging, sir

Reporting for blogging, sir

: The WSJ and the LA Times report that a military blogger in Iraq is being disciplined for allegedly revealing too much on his blog. Says the WSJ:

But Spc. Buzzell’s writing aspirations may prove his undoing as a professional soldier. Recently, shortly after his commanders discovered My War on the Web, Spc. Buzzell found himself banned from patrols and confined to base. His commanders say Spc. Buzzell may have breached operational security with his writings. “My War” went idle as he pondered the consequences of pursuing his craft while slogging through five nights of radio guard duty, a listless detail for an infantryman. More recently, the pages again went blank, as he chafed under a prepublication vetting regime imposed by his command….

Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, says blogs, like other forms of communication, are tolerated so long as they don’t violate operational or informational security. “We treat them the same way we would if they were writing a letter or speaking to a reporter: It’s just information,” he says. “If a guy is giving up secrets, it doesn’t make much difference whether he’s posting it on a blog or shouting it from the rooftop of a building.” …

Note that they’re not trying to stop blogging.

5 responses to “Reporting for blogging, sir”

  1. David Weisman Avatar
    David Weisman

    That was a great blog. Milblogger Jason Van Steenwyk at COUNTERCOLUMN: All Your Bias Are Belong to Us is on the other end of the political spectrum, but he is unhappy with this closing and agrees it is political. I guess we know why most milblogs by current soldiers are pro war.

  2. Perry de Havilland Avatar
    Perry de Havilland

    If he was indeed revealing operational details, and with a blog you can do that with a potentially very damaging relevence to current operational security needs, then it can hardly be ‘political’ if his superiors forced him to shut the hell up, regardless of his stance pro- or con- the war.

  3. SSG B Avatar
    SSG B

    I started reading My War shortly after his story about a night ambush started going around the blogosphere. It was gripping reading, and I really liked his writing style. I read through his two months of archives and my opinion of him only improved. I liked having an inside view into what our Soldiers are going through. I was also impressed that our military, and the local economy, is developed enough to support someone who blogs.
    That is my opinion as a citizen. My opinion as a NCO in the Army though is he did occasionally reveal too much info. He went into detail about what they’d do when they came under attack, he also discussed the tactics used when entering a house. Those are just the two occurances I can remember without any further research.
    I know that he will be allowed to continue blogging, but he will be under closer scrutiny. Whether he wants to continue under those conditions in his choice.

  4. Kevin Avatar
    Kevin

    The WSJ article, espcially towards the end, is somewhat ambiguous about who is repsonsible for the fate of this blog. While his chain of command certainly took some steps in this direction they also seemed of two minds about his writing with some encouragement for him to continue. There is also a hint that SPC Buzzell was somewhat nervous about the attention his blog was getting. The overall impression I got was that it was not simply a case of censorship though this was certianly a big part of the explanation.

  5. david Avatar
    david

    Just like SSG B said — good blog, but for military personnel, there is a very clear line that must never be crossed. It’s OK to talk about the chow, the heat, missing buddies back home, and such, but never never disclose *anything* that may be of value to any enemy. That goes for deployed troops and for stateside troops, natch.