Air Force censors blogs

Want to see yet another example of government censorship? Today's contender for the Golden Constitution-Shredder Award is, of all organizations, the U.S. Air Force, which has a new censorship policy that not only bans blogging by troops but also bars them from accessing blogs.

So while part of the Air Force's job is to defend the Constitution, it is instead violating it. The Air Force now bans troops from reading any site that has "blog" in its Web address. The excuse is that blogs are "not legitimate news sources", according to the Air Force. Other blogs and even some news sites are censored based on "content reviews." However, the website of an established newspaper would not be blocked, because it's an "authorized source."

This is almost like the Postal Service opening troops' mail. Or if the government tore articles out of newspapers before troops could read them.

This very blog is blocked because it has "blog" in the URL. I have a good mind to sue the Air Force right this minute for barring troops from reading this blog. Not only does this censorship violate the rights of Air Force personnel to read news sites of their choice, but it also violates my free speech rights as a civilian blogger.

Many Air Force personnel live on base, so the only computer network they have access to is the censored one the Air Force provides.

Joining the military is a commitment - but keeping fighting men and women in the dark by blocking the news isn't what I call building a strong national defense. It sounds more like something you'd expect from one of Mel Sembler's gulags than from the military of the most powerful country in the world.

(Source: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=10901;
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/02/air-force-banni.html)