Command Insecurity
The guys and gals in Wired’s Danger Room have been looking at the new Army Regulation 530–1: Operations Security (OPSEC), and it is pretty pathetic.
The Army seems to believe Reporters = Foreign Spies?, and the DR people worry that New Army Rules Could Kill G.I. Blogs (Maybe E-mail, Too).
I know something about military security, you don’t get assigned to NSA unless it is thoroughly embedded in your brain. I dealt with stuff that had classified classifications, i.e. the indicators of the level of protection required for the information were themselves classified.
NSA isn’t only about gathering intelligence, it is also heavily concerned with insuring that US intelligence isn’t compromised. You have know what is important, and what isn’t. There is a lot of classified information, that isn’t inherently secret, but is classified because of how it was gathered. For example, there’s nothing secret about someone going to a particular restaurant, but if the only way you could know about it is via a phone tap, it is classified because of what it reveals about “sources and methods.”
When I read these reports the first things that came to mind were “Abu Ghraib and Pat Tillman.” These revisions are only peripherally concerned with operational security, the real thrust is to make it more difficult to expose incompetence and criminal behavior.
The flag officers must really be concerned that their retirements are threatened by the truth, and really worried they are going to be required to work for a living.
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[…] [05/02/07] Army Regulation 530–1: Operations Security (OPSEC) – commanders must approve blog posts and e-mails. […]