posted May 19, 2007 07:27 PM              

This info came in my email box yesterday and I was wondering if this might effect the communications between you and Bear and other military families as it states here.

I don't think this is a good thing as the article states that the use of the internet is how many military personnel serving in Iraq and elsewhere keep in contact with their wives and families.

Pentagon’s YouTube ban fought
By AP.
SAN FRANCISCO — YouTube’s cofounders Thursday challenged the Pentagon’s assertion that soldiers overseas were sapping too much bandwidth by watching online videos, the military’s principal rationale for blocking popular Web sites from Defense Department computers.

“They said it might be a bandwidth issue, but they created the Internet, so I don’t know what the problem is,” Chief Executive Chad Hurley said in an interview.

Hurley, chief technology officer Steve Chen and YouTube spokeswoman Julie Supan emphasized that the online video company is trying to work with the Pentagon in hopes the military would reverse course or at least partially repeal the ban.

The Pentagon said this week it was cutting off service members’ access to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other Web sites, some of which are used by soldiers on the front lines of Iraq and Afghanistan to post videos and journals for friends and family back home.

Rear Adm. Elizabeth Hight, the Defense Information Systems Agency vice director, said Thursday that the decision primarily was driven by concerns about bandwidth, or the capacity of the Pentagon network to handle data-heavy material such as video.

Pentagon Defends Move To Block Websites

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Thursday defended a decision to block popular Web sites including YouTube and MySpace on U.S. military computers, saying it needed to keep its network clear for operations.

Military officials said they had restricted access to more than a dozen recreational sites because they had registered high levels of use on U.S. Department of Defense computers.

Rear Adm. Elizabeth Hight, deputy head of the Defense Information Systems Agency, said the Pentagon needed to ensure bandwidth on its network of more than 5 million computers was not clogged by the use of those sites.

“This network is critical for our effective and efficient and safe combat operations,” Hight told reporters.

“We use it for everything from ordering supplies to sending orders to providing logistics information, scheduling people to get on an airplane, scheduling goods to move from point to point,” she told reporters at the Pentagon.

Rep. Ed Markey, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet, has called on the Pentagon to reverse the decision, which took effect on Monday.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates earlier this week, Markey said troops overseas had used many of the blocked sites to communicate with family and friends and that those contacts were critical for morale.

But the Pentagon said many of the sites had already been blocked on military computers in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than two years and troops had many other ways of keeping in touch with loved ones.

The Pentagon agency responsible for morale provided commercial Internet services free of charge at bases across Iraq and Afghanistan and those would be unaffected by the decision, Hight said.

She said the Pentagon had not banned troops from using the sites but had simply decided they could not be accessed from U.S. military computers to preserve bandwidth.

New technologies such as streaming video were real “bandwidth hogs,” Hight said.

“We just simply cannot accommodate the growth in the bandwidth demands of this newer technology for both official reasons and recreational sites,” she said.

The Pentagon said the blocked sites included YouTube, 1.fm, Pandora, MySpace, PhotoBucket, Live365, hi5, Metacafe, MTV, ifilm.com, Blackplanet, stupidvideos and filecabi.

posted May 19, 2007 07:45 PM            

Bear is in a location that has banned youtube, myspace and others sites. He can get on here, but to post he has to go to another site at his base.

It will be hard on some Military families that use those outlets extensively, but the move was in order to preserve operational security. Some people had posted exact locations of their husbands / friends, which compromises the mission. I am not sure exactly where Bear is either nor can he tell me.

We all still have AKO (Army Knowledge Online) that is a secured way for us to send e-mail and video clips.

On another note though, myspace was causing issues in relationships. Women would see that their hubby / bf signed in but didn't leave them a message... you can imagine the hell that broke loose as a result of that. LOL...

Bear and I don't have myspace accounts - so we're cool LOL..

Thank you for your concern!!! Hugs!!!

pidaua

posted May 20, 2007 01:19 AM              

LOL Yes, I can see how My Space might cause problems in some relationships. It might be rough on the single guys to be cut off from it though. This is the first war that our troops have fought in strict religious countries where there is no access to female companionship due to laws and codes of conduct for women.

posted May 20, 2007 12:06 PM              

US soldiers can no longer send email or post on blogs without content review by a superior officer.

This is outright censorship.

posted May 20, 2007 12:55 PM            

If the military could survive without the internet in previous generations, then it can still survive without it now. My military experience was largely without internet access. If I remember right all email for the ship came through one address, which was downloaded once a day and distributed (printed out on paper) to whoever it was for. The only time I could access the internet while in the Navy was on base on one of the more advanced bases.

quote:

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I thought the American military was about freedom and rights

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posted May 20, 2007 02:22 PM              

*Rolls eyes

posted May 20, 2007 03:14 PM            

You're wrong about that. The media is reporting the blown up verison of what is reality. They can e-mail whatever they want through a Military account. They cannot give out locations or potential information that may lead to someone knowing what operation is going to take place.

You may want to brush up on the rights of Soldiers in the Military concerning using government property. It is NO different that working for a Corporation or business that is allowed to screen your use on the computer and fire you for using office time to play on the Internet or send out e-mails.

In other words- do it on ones own time and not on the Military dime. Soldiers still have access to Internet cafe's and their own laptops to send out whatever e-mail they want - just not on a Military computer.

But hey, thanks for taking the ball and running with it.. in the wrong direction of course.

AG- you hit the nail on the head.

posted May 20, 2007 04:46 PM            

I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

posted May 20, 2007 06:22 PM            

In actuality there is no difference between a company or local government and the Military blocking access to websites.

When I worked a biotech company they blocked many websites due to contact. The county gov did as well. I wasn't able to access anything that was considered to be of a personal or sexual (and myspace fell under that) nature.

We weren't even allowed to access our AOL, yahoo or any other kind of e-mail.

More and more employers are taking this route so that they do not have employees using the company property in a manner that would be counter to the mission of the company / government.

posted May 20, 2007 06:34 PM            

Hope no one minds me butting in with a non-topic related post.

Hey, pidaua. I left a message for you in FFA but as that forum gets a lot of traffic I just wanted to leave a link in a thread you are likely to visit again. Pidaua

posted May 21, 2007 06:57 PM              

What AG stated about the military has always been the case. Yes, they are fighting for freedom and rights, ours and theirs. However, when they enlist in the military it is understood that there are some freedoms that they have to relinquish until they return once again to civilian life.

I think that in this case the Pentagon has valid reasons for blocking certain internet activity. AG explained the reason very well. It slows down the network.

When it comes to media reporting we should keep in mind that in both cases, left and right, we only hear half of the story, the story that fits the agenda of which ever way the news reporter or newspaper leans. That's why we need to do our homework and see what others are saying as well.

As long as the military provides a secure way in which soldiers can keep in touch with their families, wives and girlfriends back home, which Pidaua said they do, then there really is no big deal if a few sites are blocked on the worldwide web.