TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The U.S. army has admitted to block access to parts of Guardian website for thousands of defense personnel. A spokesman said the military was filtering out reports and content relating to government surveillance programs to prevent any classified material appearing on unclassified parts of its computer systems.
The confirmation follows reports in the Monterey Herald that staffs at the military base south of San Francisco had complained of not being able to access Guardian site at all. They also can no longer access the internet, following publication 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. However, a spokesman for the Army's Network Enterprise Technology Command (Netcom) in Arizona confirmed that this measure was likely to be affecting hundreds of facilities that are related with the Internet.
"In response to your question about access to the guardian.co.uk website, we are filtering some access to press coverage and online content about the NSA leaks," said Gordon Van Vleet, a Netcom public affairs officer. "The Department of Defense routinely takes preventative 'network hygiene' measures to mitigate unauthorized disclosures from classified information to unclassified networks."
The army stressed its actions were automatic and would not affect computers outside military facilities.
Snowden leaked secret information to Washington Post and the Guardian concerning a NSA secret program to collect telephone conversation data of Verizon subscribers and tapping of U.S. internet giant servers such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple – known as PRISM program.
He was charged with theft and espionage after he communicated illegally on national defense information and gave American secret intelligent data to an authorized person. With this charge, he could face 10 years in prison.
GUARDIAN | TRIP B
