From official admonishments not to read or discuss any of the cables to threats to prosecute people for reading press coverage of them, the US government’s various departments and agencies are in a tizzy, determined to keep their employees as in the dark about the WikiLeaks releases as possible.
The Air Force’s effort, which includes a full ban on the websites of mainstream media outlets that have covered any aspect of the cables appears the most aggressive so far, and also one of the few to even hazard an attempt at defending their policy.
The Air Force insists that the blocking is part of an effort to “safeguard classified information,” which seems more than a little ridiculous with that information available to literally everyone else on the planet.
The White House has also insisted that all federal employees are banned from accessing the documents, but has not taken the same sort of efforts to impose this ban formally.
The moves are largely in keeping with official policy of being outraged at the releases, but also seem to be ignoring the reality of the situation – the documents are a matter of public record whatever the law regarding them at this point. At best the bannings will ensure that a handful of bureaucrats remain totally in the dark about truths that the rest of the country, and indeed the rest of the world, are now fully aware of.
A government of scared ostrichs. It is probably meant to in advance make it impossible to go to a court of law on some revelation. It does not exist? Not tor the government attorneys.
A more rewarding use of this ostrichism would be simply to declare victory in all present wars, and then draw the troops home, and stop most military expenses at once. Still a blatant irrationalism, but less costly, for the good of the civilian population outside the outfit.
A totally unworkable policy, one that is already being laughed at from all quarters. As the saying goes, you can't put the genie back in the bottle- and in this case, any attempt to do so is an exercise in futility. Granted, the military does have a case in blocking those websites from official computer networks, but ultimately those who are going to do the research and DO anything about the contents of those cables is probably going to be doing that on their own time, on their own computer!
So block on, Air Force- just be aware that the plan is already doomed and is wasting time and resources that could be employed elsewhere.
According to an article linked here a couple of weeks ago, a "private" company (defense contractor) has barred its employees from accessing WL or reading about the document dump on any computers, including their private ones. I'd love to see how they intend to enforce that diktat. So the insanity is not limited to govt. drones.
Still, it's obvious the USAF has become a sad caricature of itself. I'm glad I left when I did (late 1980s).
All of the FedGov military services are now pathetic jokes, from an institutional-administrative standpoint.
Censorship = freedom
One Orwell left off is list. Probably cut by an editor to save some space.
LOL, thousands of soldiers have already looked at WikiLeaks as determined by IP address traffic. Im sure they will all be booted out of the military right? NOT.
This is just so utterly outrageous and the height of hypocrisy to say the least. Try to picture Hilary Clinton addressing this if it had been the Chinese or Iran who had done it. Oy!
Land of slavery, despotism and total control of peoples lives.
What happened to once free country upon which most of us looked with hope and admiration.
What a waste and what a shame …..
The FedGov looks like the Wizard of Oz after Toto pulled down the curtain. "I am the great and powerful Oz! Ignore the man behind the curtain!"