Milblog Bust: AP Gets Snowed

Oh, my. Did the Associated Press ever get spun on the Army's new rules cracking down on bloggers.

"Army Maj. Ray M. Ceralde, who worked on the new regulations, said Wednesday the intention of the 2007 rule is not to have soldiers clear every public posting with commanders," according to the AP's Lolita C. Baldor.

"Not only is that impractical, but we are trusting the soldiers to protect critical information," he said.*

He said there is no effort to block soldiers from setting up or posting comments to blogs. "We're not looking for them to seek approval each time a blog entry is posted," Ceralde said.*

Okay, so that may not be Maj. Ceralde's intention. But what do the rules themselves actually say? Let's have a look. Paragraph 2-1g tells Army personnel to:

Consult with their immediate supervisor and their OPSEC Officer__ for an OPSEC review prior to publishing or posting information__ in a public forum.

(1) This includes, but is not limited to letters, resumes, articles for publication, electronic mail (e-mail), Web site postings, web log
(blog) postings, discussion in Internet information forums, discussion in Internet message boards or other forms of dissemination or documentation.*

How much more plain does an Army regulation have to be? "Consult with... supervisor... prior to publishing." That's pretty damn straight-ahead.

Now, Maj. Ceralde (who makes similar comments over here) may be recognizing, after the fact, that it's impractical to enforce the rules as written. But that doesn't change what they say.

In the end, the directive may be put in place only selectively. But that regulatory sword will always be hanging over commanders' -- and bloggers' -- heads. In fact, the AP articles goes on to mention that:

[Maj. Ceralde] said unit commanders have the authority to establish more restrictive requirements -- such as requiring that individual postings be reviewed -- if they deem it necessary.

Army Lawyer says "the 'threat' of this regulation to milblogs is overstated." May be. But reading Maj. Ceralde's comments -- and the regs -- it seem pretty clear to me, Army bloggers, that they can bust you any time they want.

(emphasis mine, throughout)

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* Clarifying the Blog Rule Clarification
* Army to Bloggers: We Won't Bust You. Promise.
* Army's Blog Rebuttal
* Stop Those Leaks!
* Strategic Minds Debate Milblog Crackdown
* Army: Milblogging is "Therapy," Media is "Threat"

* Urban Legend Led to Army Blog-Bust?

* New Army Rules Could Kill G.I. Blogs (Maybe E-mail, Too)

* Reporters = Foreign Spies?

* Army's Info-Cop Speaks
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