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Today's Top News
USAF Blocks Media Sites over Wikileaks
United States Air Force has barred access to news websites containing material from WikiLeaks' disclosure of US files.
The US Air Force has blocked access for computers on its network to at least 25 websites that published sensitive diplomatic documents released by the Internet site WikiLeaks, a spokeswoman said.
Major Toni Tones, a spokesperson at Air Force Space Command in Colorado, said on Tuesday that the websites that carried WikiLeaks documents had been blocked and could not be viewed by any Air Force computer.
The Air Force "routinely blocks Air Force network access to websites hosting inappropriate materials or malware (malicious software) and this includes any website that hosts classified materials and those that are released by WikiLeaks," Tones said.
She said the action was taken by the 24th Air Force, which is commanded by Major Generral Richard Webber and is responsible for cyber warfare and computer security for the service. The move was approved by Air Force lawyers, she said.
The Army and Navy say they have not taken similar actions.
'Unfortunate'
"If a site has republished the documents, then we block it," she said, adding that the move to prevent access to the media sites was done recently. She said she was not sure of the date.
Tones said The New York Times is the only major US newspaper included in the ban.
The newspaper's spokesman Robert Christie said in a statement that "it is unfortunate that the US Air Force has chosen not to allow its personnel access to information that virtually everyone else in the world can access."
Others media sites include Der Spiegel in Germany, the Guardian in Britain and Le Monde in France.
WikiLeaks released more than a quarter-million sensitive State Department cables in late November, revealing blunt, sometimes derisive depictions of foreign governments and leaders, which embarrassed Washington.
The White House formally reminded all federal employees and government contractors on December 3 that anyone without a security clearance is not permitted to read classified documents, such as the diplomatic messages published by WikiLeaks, even on a personal computer at home outside work hours.
It was not immediately clear how the US government would enforce this, but the White House said employees who inadvertently viewed the information should contact their US security offices at work.
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41 Comments so far
Show AllAhhh, welcome to China! Wait...we're still in the US.
This move is largely useless, anyway. The documents are already out there. Those who can't see them on Air Force computers will see them on other sources.
But I suppose when you sign up for the military, you give up many of your rights as an American citizen. Kind of like when convicted prisoners are incarcerated. Not that that's new, or anything.
God, how i wish that all the toxic rubbish from the shills on the payroll of the global parasites was censored and blocked for good.
Obviously, the AF shouldn't be viewing WL at work because as everyone knows, Air Force computers are solely for the use of crashing satellite holograms and NOTHING ELSE!!!
Media that traffics in stolen property should be banned.
Much more important, and needed first is that all murderous war criminal politicians need to be brought to justice.
Thats the greatest good.
dave_m
I didn't realize from your posting on the Flanders site what how extreme your views are. Obviously, by "traffic" you do not mean a commercial activity. Would the government's illegal interception of an e-mail and subsequent use of it in a criminal investigation or prosecution constitute such "trafficking"?
Your comment has nothing to do with this article .
Are there any underground newspapers left in this country?
Yea and it's called the internet. Enjoy it while it lasts
"Don't read, don't think."
Wonderful policy for the development of functional citizens...
"inappropriate"...my favorite weasel word!
I have the same reaction to that word. Ham at Hannukah is inappropriate. But the word is used to dismiss actions without dealing with content.
Joe
When I was a young man, that word was permanently put in my mind's red flag department when it was used incessantly by Ron Ziegler and others in the Nixon administration.
Yep. As you say, it cuts off attention to content and that's why it is used.
I posted this on another thread, but feel it is worth repeating:
The USAF censoring sites known to publish the WL cables or analysis of the cables is worrying.
What it means is that in "lockdown" mode, the USAF (and presumably the rest of the DoD) has the contingency plan and ability to frame news received by soldiers, and it may be different to reality.
If there is a rebellion against the Govt, is this the mechanism to ensure soldier loyalty to the Govt?
Remember back in the early days of the Bush/Cheney dictatorship? They had the DoD publish fake news (supposedly in foreign countries only). Later the administration claimed that they stopped this practice.
Of course, that was simply another governmental lie. The AmeriKKKan government has been feeding us bullshit since its inception.
That's why the Empire is getting rid of these pesky soldiers and substituting them for obedient robots to do their killing.
We have become China. We have become the USSR with our own Politburo. We have become Goebbels. "We" are next.
So how does this fit into the meme that "They are fighting for our freedom"...
Dear NC-Tom:
That's easy, NC Tom, the USAF just redacted the "for."
Searching for the Truth: Don't ask, Don't tell.
Of course the AmeriKKKan Air Force doesn't want their personnel to get Wikileaks information. If they did, they military personnel might be enlightened enough to refuse to do the dirty deeds that are done in our name.
It's amazing to me that the other branches of the military haven't censored these sites.
"It's amazing to me that the other branches of the military haven't censored these sites."
Possibly because the USAF are way ahead in cyberwarfare than the other branches. In another article I read that the USAF had already planned for this contingency, and all that was needed was permission and to "flip a switch" and their servers ignore a list of undesirable sites. Now if they did this with porn they might be ahead of the curve.
I am sure the other branches have this capability, but it may not have been "pre-packaged" as well and so will take a little longer to roll out.
I bet those Air Force folks who 'inadvertantly' had a peek at some of those cables will be tripping over each other to tell the security people about it.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over”
And:
“Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.”
Joseph Goebbels, MiniProp for Hitler’s Third Reich
1897-1945
Perhaps it is damage control kind of like in the movie Standard Operating Procedure. In that movie, the military allowed a one-time absolution for all personnel if they turned in any incriminating photos taken at Abu Graib. This was a way to make sure there were no more leaks. Anyone else caught with pictures after this pardon period would face criminal sanctions.
In the AF and Federal government, I suppose they do not want people reading the cables just in case the can corroborate or supplement to them. I suppose if one of them gets nervous about prosecution they may start singing in order to get immunity and it will work all the way up. The powers that be would have vested interest in stopping this type of firestorm.
Like China, like the US.
What's the difference?
Names can be so funny and revealing. General WEBBER shuts down the WEB! If this were a novel, people would find this name choice inane, but it's real life, which can sometimes be the funniest.
Oh Air Force, you don't trust your own people to THINK! OMG! Some of them are flying around in big expensive planes too.If you think that employees are so brainless, how can you trust them in the cockpit?
It would also be fun to learn what other UNapproved sites are. Any help from some of you Air Force people? Is FOX news an approved site? How about porn?
Big Brother is watching you.
Now the people are watching Big Brother and Big Brother doesn't like it.
Hopefully they get a good view of the middle finger some of us are holding up to them.
Censorship. Yes, that's what I expect from people against transparancy.
Time Magazine had to choose between naming Assange as person of the year and getting banned by the Federal Government, or stop pretending it was some kind of news organization.
No it didn't. They do the poll every year and they never use the selection. The selection is made before the poll is even on line for people to take.
LOL!
But of course.......
Didn't some 300k military folks already have access to this stuff before it was leaked? Isn't this how Manning supposedly got access to it?
It appears that we should be making posters and flyers of Wikileaks information, preferably uncredited except for small print at the end, and posting them at universites, giving them to draftees, mailing them to military personnel, posting it in comments on news sites, blogs, and anywhere else it can be posted, and otherwise making it impossible to both be an American and NOT have read some of it.
Who wants to create the first Wikileaks spam? The first Wikileaks t-shirt? Embed it subliminally in pop songs? Rap it?
We need to get someone like former Senator Mike Gravel to read them into the Congressional Record - like he did with the Pentagon papers.
Saras,
Sounds like a plan to me!
AnthEmic writes:
"Didn't some 300k military folks already have access to this stuff before it was leaked? Isn't this how Manning supposedly got access to it?"
Good point!
Meanwhile, now that Air Force personnel are prohibited from accessing Wikileak sites on their home computers, precisely how will the AF enforce this? By acknowledging that they are snooping all the home computers of AF Personnel? At what rank do you become immune from such snooping?
Who is snooping Defense Secretary Gates' home computer(s)?
Etc. Historically, can anyone name an encryption system that has not been broken? Even poetry. You just have to be a little nuts. Sometimes obsession can be a good thing.
Meanwhile, what are large corporations calling their hacking departments these days?
-30-
There is probably a major typo in this news report. It is not the US Air Force that is banning news. It must be the Chinese Air Force doing that. Or the Iranian Air Force. Or North Korean Air Force? Burmese? Venezuelan Air Force probably.
The US Air Force defends freedom and liberty. And all of the officers in the US Air Force are sworn to defend and honor the US Constitution, which has a clause protecting freedom of the press. They would be violating their oaths if they blocked access to media sites.