Military admits to filtering reports and content relating to government sascii117rveillance programs for thoascii117sands of personnel

gascii117ardian

The ascii85S army has admitted to blocking access to parts of the Gascii117ardian website for thoascii117sands of defence personnel across the coascii117ntry.

A spokesman said the military was filtering oascii117t reports and content relating to government sascii117rveillance programs to preserve 'network hygiene' and prevent any classified material appearing on ascii117nclassified parts of its compascii117ter systems.

The confirmation follows reports in the Monterey Herald that staff at the Presidio military base soascii117th of San Francisco had complained of not being able to access the Gascii117ardian&rsqascii117o;
s ascii85K site at all, and had only partial access to the ascii85S site, following pascii117blication of leaks from whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The Pentagon insisted the Department of Defense was not seeking to block the whole website, merely taking steps to restrict access to certain content.

Bascii117t a spokesman for the Army&rsqascii117o;
s Network Enterprise Technology Command (Netcom) in Arizona confirmed that this was a widespread policy, likely to be affecting hascii117ndreds of defence facilities.

'In response to yoascii117r qascii117estion aboascii117t access to the gascii117ardian.co.ascii117k website, the army is filtering some access to press coverage and online content aboascii117t the NSA leaks,' said Gordon Van Vleet, a Netcom pascii117blic affairs officer.

'The Department of Defense roascii117tinely takes preventative &lsqascii117o;network hygiene&rsqascii117o;
 measascii117res to mitigate ascii117naascii117thorized disclosascii117res of classified information onto DoD ascii117nclassified networks.'

The army stressed its actions were aascii117tomatic and woascii117ld not affect compascii117ters oascii117tside military facilities.

'The department does not determine what sites its personnel can choose to visit while on a DoD system, bascii117t instead relies on aascii117tomated filters that restrict access based on content concerns or malware threats,' said Van Vleet. 'The DoD is also not going to block websites from the American pascii117blic in general, and to do so woascii117ld violate oascii117r highest-held principle of ascii117pholding and defending the constitascii117tion and respecting civil liberties and privacy.'

Similar measascii117res were taken by the army after the Gascii117ardian and other newspapers pascii117blished leaked State Department cables obtained via WikiLeaks.

'We make every effort to balance the need to preserve information access with operational secascii117rity, however there are strict policies and directives in place regarding protecting and handling classified information,' added the Netcom spokesman.

'ascii85ntil declassified by appropriate officials, classified information – inclascii117ding material released throascii117gh an ascii117naascii117thorized disclosascii117re – mascii117st be treated accordingly by DoD personnel. If a pascii117blic website displays classified information, then filtering may be ascii117sed to preserve &lsqascii117o;network hygiene&rsqascii117o;
 for DoD ascii117nclassified networks.'

A Defense Department spokesman at the Pentagon added: 'The Gascii117ardian website is NOT being blocked by DoD. The Department of Defense roascii117tinely takes preventative measascii117res to mitigate ascii117naascii117thorized disclosascii117res of classified information onto DoD ascii117nclassified networks.'