This has been reported in various places, even CNN, so now it’s your turn to weigh in. This is the original report from the site that discovered this situation.
Guess what websites are being blocked by the Pentagon to make sure U.S. troops in Iraq don’t get any big ideas? One hint: Free Republic is coming through loud and clear! A Marine writes Wonkette:
“I am currently stationed in Al Taqaddam, Iraq with the Marines…you’ve done a short piece about this before, but this is getting ridiculous.
It seems that every non-conservative politics website has been blocked by our firewall guys…including your site. The reason it is blocked is because it is a “personal page.” Which means they don’t have a reason to block it … but they want to block it, so they do. This was done recently, just in time for mid-term elections. As I said, it was not only your website, I have gone through lists of liberal sites and most of them are blocked. I’ve also taken the time to go to some conservative sites….none of which are blocked.
I don’t have the words to describe how I feel. They have sent me to this desert three times…each time saying that we are defending freedom… which is BS and everyone knows it. And on top of that they have taken away many of the freedoms that we are supposedly fighting for….
I don’t think there is much anyone can do about this, but I just wanted you to know that this was still going on.”
Freedom’s on the march!
The entire war in Iraq is a bunch of BS. There is no reason for us to be there. We should pull out TODAY. There is no way to get rid of terrorism. There are terrorists in many religions and races in many countries. We just need to figure out better ways to protect ourselves.
The really dangerous terrorists live in Washington D.C.
2,
Oh yes there is! Stop pissing in peoples backyards, and they’ll stop setting yours on fire. Very simple in fact. Except, it goes against Government / Corporate interests in certain regions.
This has been reported for around a year I think. It’s old news but it should be reported every night on every network along with many other wrongs this government is perpetrating, like torture, the removal of Habeas Corpus, the graft and corruption in government handling of the Gulf rebuilding effort, how oil companies helped with creating the war plan before we even “knew” about WMDs in Iraq, and on and on. I won’t even go into the obvious gerrymandering and vote cheating/fraud running rampant with neocons (but not with the voters themselves).
Guys, if we don’t find some way of getting these evil men and women out of office soon we are gonna be living in a 3rd world dictatorship.
Working at the United States Military Academy I can tell you that the DoD has always moderated what comes through their NIPERNET based a wide number of factors. Pages get blocked for a variety of content including advertising, language, and games. I think you’ll find that in specific cases some liberal pages get blocked and others get through. You can probably find some conservative sites that are blocked as well . I find it hard to believe that an organization as inefficient as the military actually has found the time and resources to add specific political sites and blogs to their ACL’s.
It’s the government’s computer and the government’s network. They can block or allow whatever they want and don’t have to justify it to anyone.
This is one FOB. Meanwhile there are other FOBs that block other sites, because each one is handles by a civilian individual working for KBR who is interpreting the rules given them by the Pentagon.
Fucking HELL the tech reporting on this site is for shit.
#6 – The military does not have to find the time or resources. You can be sure several billion $ has been given to the company owned by some Bush relative/friend to do the work for them.
THE SKY IS FALLING THE SKY IS FALLING!
Seriously? [edited] They’re called elections. If you can’t manage to vote and convince your friends to vote with you, that’s no one’s fault but yours. Bush will be gone in 2008, and anyone who says otherwise is a barking moonbat.
Fucking HELL the tech reporting on this site is for shit.
Comment by malren — 10/27/2006 @ 6:03 am
But as bad as he could be, I doubt he could approach the stupid comments you are making in #7 & 9.
I’m curious, do you troll for a living? Are you one of those jerks that get paid to monitor “left wing” blogs? Or worse, are you one of those idiots that actually get paid to put out Bush propaganda in an effort to sway public opinion?
Whichever, you sure must have a hard time sleeping at night. Unless I’m giving you more credit then you deserve. Simply because I have a hard time believing that someone as stupid could find the ON button for their computer.
Fusion, you’re like a little yippy dog. You think you’re a lot bigger than you are. Cute, though!
I suppose the military can censor what they want.
The REAL scary picture here is that the current military brass is a reflection of the philosophy of our current Bush government !!! If they had the will, they would do the same thing to the general population.
#2; your right, we should have loaded up and left last week.
Site Admin should discourage off topic name calling and insults. Just because someone’s an absolute idiot doesn’t mean they should be called one. There are more elegant and illustrative ways to express the sentiment.
This year’s mid term elections will be the final and most telling report card for the Bush administration, expressing to the world the American people’s feelings, or perhaps the degree of our apathy.
“It’s the government’s computer and the government’s network. They can block or allow whatever they want and don’t have to justify it to anyone.”
I just love this attitude; love it almost as much as when people use the term moonbat and expect to be taken seriously.
Freedom’s on the march!
Comment by Greg Allen
Shouldn’t that be ‘goose-step’?
J/P=?
#13: I probably should have added the other two articles on Wonkette that came after the one I cited, including the one which had a transcript of the CNN piece.
http://tinyurl.com/yehwkc
http://tinyurl.com/y5r7yn
Interesting how it happens to be the liberal websites that are taking up bandwidth, according to the military.
#14: You’re right. OK kids play nice, damn it! And get off my lawn!
#6 – it’s the government’s computer and the government’s network. They can block or allow whatever they want and don’t have to justify it to anyone.
Comment by Darrell — 10/27/2006 @ 5:57 am
The government doesn’t own a damn thing that all of us don’t own too. Those are the taxpayers computers, the taxpayers network, and the taxpayers military… and those soldiers are citizens too.
You don’t get to say you are the land of the free and the home of the brave if you don’t uphold freedom and act with bravery.
People in the military fighting for democracy and freedom should have unrestricted access to a free press. If this story is in fact true, the censorship of American sites critical of the war is a pathetic effort to protect a political agenda.
In the long term it’s not a good way to build the confidence of men and women in the military. To some degree, censorship adds credibility to the subject of the censorship. To make the content of dissenting sites less potent, a more effective approach would be to highlight their perspective, not glorify their mission by making it appear to be something feared in the leadership ranks. If I recall this correctly, MacArthur and Eisenhower were listeners to Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally. They were men who lead by example, and didn’t get all pissy over the next guys opinion. And no, I’m not comparing The Huffington Post to Tokyo Rose.
Oh, and if making GIs listen to Rush Limbaugh isn’t a violation of the Geneva Convention it should be.
Remember when military service was supposed to help train you for a good civilian job? I guess the next good civilian job will be blocking “objectionable sites” for civilians.
18. Again man, what can I say but you said it best.
I love American democracy & freedom of speech. Makes the rest of the world proud, not to be American.