Congressional Briefing
No MySpace for Fort Riley soldiers in Iraq
Posted Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Fort Riley: 1st Infantry Division
(San Francisco Chronicle) Popular Web sites now off-limits to troops: his online link between troops serving overseas and their friends and families was interrupted Monday when the Defense Department announced that it had cut off access to MySpace, YouTube and 11 other popular file-sharing and networking Web sites on the Pentagon's 5 million computers and 15,000 networks. The new policy, which military officials say is intended to reduce the amount of traffic snagging the Defense Department's overburdened worldwide network, comes on the heels of an Army regulation last month enforcing new, strict rules on soldier bloggers. ... Maj. Bruce Mumford, communications officer for the 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, says the military will not spend more on expensive equipment to broaden the bandwidth and meet the demand. "The U.S. Army's not going to pay the bill for you to get on MySpace and YouTube," Mumford told the Associated Press. Madden said U.S. troops are still allowed to access the sites on their personal computers and such nonmilitary networks as Internet cafes in Iraq run by private concerns. The troops also are allowed to send messages and photos by email.
(AP) Terror group warns U.S.: At Fort Riley, Kan., the former U.S. military commander in Iraq said soldiers could face higher chances of ambush and capture under a new strategy to shift troops into smaller outposts - part of plans to seek more outreach with Iraqi civilians and possible tips on militant activities. "But the strategy has exposed them to greater risk of attack," said Gen. George Casey after meeting with Fort Riley and 1st Infantry Division commanders. The redeployment into the smaller bases has been strongly supported by Casey's successor, Gen. David Petraeus.
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