Reining In the Blogs of War

Army warns that warfighters’ online diaries can place lives at risk and degrade the effectiveness of operations.

The popularity of online blogs kept by warfighters in Iraq and Afghanistan has touched off renewed debate over operational security and the free flow of information in the Internet age.

At issue are blogs, or Web logs, created by in-theater soldiers in their free time to post personal comments and observations. The ubiquity of Internet technology has triggered the proliferation of these Web pages, in which ordinary people around the world report on what they see and experience and comment on the issues of the day. Blogs are set up at low or no cost and typically provide for interactivity, in which readers comment on blog content and respond to each other. Untold thousands of blogs have been set up by individuals worldwide, including hundreds by active U.S. military personnel.

“The enemy aggressively ‘reads’ our open source and continues to exploit such information for use against our forces,” Army Chief of Staff General Peter J. Schoomaker wrote in an August memo. “Some soldiers continue to post sensitive information to Internet Web sites and blogs, e.g., photos depicting weapon system vulnerabilities and tactics, techniques and procedures. Such OPSEC violations needlessly place lives at risk and degrade the effectiveness of our operations."

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