Defense Week October 21, 2002
In Afghanistan, A Brief Life For Soldier Web Site
BY NATHAN HODGE
If the sheer number of visitors to a Website is any measure of its success, then a group of Army soldiers stationed in Afghanistan recently hit on the right formula for a winner.
Problem was, their site (www.172med.org) was a victim of its own success: Because of the outsized attention they received, the soldiers had to shut it down.
As the military sends troops to some of the more distant corners of the globe, it faces a problem: how to keep personnel in touch with their families while protecting operational security (in military parlance, OPSEC). Such concerns are nothing new-older veterans still have memories of censored mail-but the military says the instantaneous nature of electronic information raises concerns that someone could inadvertently tip off an adversary to an ongoing military operation. "It is an ongoing battle to keep sensitive info off the Web," said John Gusky, an analyst with Army network communications. "Too many people post before they think. It's a major awareness-and-education problem."
But according to one expert, the military has erred on the side of caution-needlessly restricting information that does not affect operational security.
"That has clearly been the issue that the military has been grappling with for at least the last five years," said John Pike, the director of Globalsecurity.org, a defense research organization. "And it has been inexorably moving in the direction of making that information less available to the friends and family."
According to Pike, there has been a tendency across the board to pull useful content from the Web, such as family support resources and "reporting aboard" information for Navy ships-and that could ultimately be to the military's detriment.
"What possible purpose this is serving-I mean, who this is protecting us from-escapes human understanding, frankly," he said.
Unwanted attention
The story of the 172nd is one small illustration of the military's Web dilemma.
When reservists of the 172nd Medical Logistics Battalion received orders for Central Asia, they launched their own "blog" (the word is a contraction of "Web log") to keep family and friends informed. As they traveled-first to Uzbekistan, then on to Afghanistan-they posted pictures, diary entries and soldier profiles.
Visitors to the site could view snapshots, mostly pictures of soldiers pulling guard duty or hanging around base, along with messages. But unlike most Websites-whose owners are free to post any thought that comes to mind-soldiers of the 172nd were careful not to let slip information about ongoing operations.
In fact, one of the lengthier postings on the site was a lecture by Capt. Mark Rhodes on OPSEC: "This has become a big issue since our little family oriented 'blog has been graced with so much attention in so little time. I'll reevaluate previous entries and scrub the site of anything that may be interpreted as an OPSEC problem. Our guys work very hard out here to support those brave men and women who take the fight to the bad guys. So we'll do our part in protecting sensitive information. Won't you do yours?"
The site earned rave reviews from online commentators. Andrew Sullivan, a prominent online journalist and pundit, posted a link to their site.
Urging readers to visit the site, Sullivan said it was "illuminating and important to see the men and women still fighting al Qaeda far away from home. Send them your best."
Apparently, the outpouring of fan mail was enough to kill the site. For a time, the site was ostensibly down for repairs; later, it was shut down altogether.
A simple message posted on the site explains: "It turns out that our old site just got too popular! ... It was really overwhelming to hear from so many around the world who expressed appreciation for the tiny part we play in this great endeavor. Thank you! Because of time constraints and our desire to stay away from so much publicity, we've shut this 'blog' down."
However, the soldiers of the 172nd held out the hope that they might try to launch a Web log in the future. "It has been a great tool to keep family and friends informed," they said.
According to Pike, that is easier said than done.
"The reality in all of this-it only takes one person to say no to turn them off," he said. "And it's much easier to turn them off than to turn them back on."
Testing reports down
Pike said he saw the story of 172med.org as part of a broader tendency by the military to curtail information on the Web.
"Certainly, if you look at the CENTCOM [U.S. Central Command] websites, if you look at all of the various deployment websites-you know, if you look at Incirlik [AFB, Turkey]-in the late '90s, those websites gave you some insight into what was going on at those forward-operating locations," he said. "And now, that's not the case."
As another example, Pike pointed to the Pentagon's decision earlier this year to take its top tester's annual reports to Congress off the Defense Department Web site. Although the reports contain only unclassified information, the military was worried that the information might be too sensitive to be available on the Web.
In response to questions about the 172med.org Web site, an Army spokesman said that the rules governing Web sites have changed.
"To prevent a transforming Army from outpacing its equally vital communications network-and thereby running short of its information supply-the service has revised its regulation that governs information management," said Patrick Swan, a spokesman for Army Strategic Communications and Integration.
This spring, the Army revised Regulation 25-1 to reflect new policies since the regulation's last major overhaul in 1998 and 1999. According to Swan, the aim was "to improve the management and control of [the] Army's public Web sites."
Copyright 2002 King Communications Group
