A little help with OPSEC

[jeraldjcook]

Hello Military Divers:

First off, I hope it's alright posting this. If not, mods or service members let me know and I'll close the thread.

I'm a law student and one of my classes deals with First Amendment issues. I'm in the middle of a paper dealing with milblogging and could use a little help. A few papers on similar topics have been written but they focus mainly on the restrictions soldiers face concerning negative criticism of whatever (policy, COs, POTUS, etc). My focus is more on a soldier's ability to blog about their day-to-day military happenings (hopefully positive ones but allowing the negative ones too) without violating OPSEC.

I've read the Army's new Reg 530 concerning OPSEC and numerous other official documents and it seems to me the definition of OPSEC is vague enough that if the policy doesn't prohibit it, a soldier's CO or the sergeant a soldier must go through will. I have a cousin who is a Marine and in one of the MEUs over there. I'll hear some positive things through the grapevine but of course never through the media; which is why I'm doing this project. With all that in mind, I have a few questions:
1) Is OPSEC so widely defined that it prohibits a soldier from blogging from just about everything?
2) Would it be possible for a soldier to have a blog and discuss day-to-day happenings without giving insurgents information that would put them or others in harm's way?
3) Does anyone have any examples of soldiers being punished for breaking OPSEC with their blog? The violation and punishment would be helpful. I already have a few examples, like Colby Buzzell, but very few others are available on the internet. I'm in the process of filing a Freedom of Information Act request and want to make sure I ask the right questions.
4) Any ideas on how the policy could be less restrictive yet achieve the objective?

I'm not looking to quote anyone in my paper (but would be happy to if you would like me to give you credit) or get anyone in trouble. If you would prefer, a PM would be fine. Any help would be appreciated and thanks for everyone's service and sacrifice.

JJ

 

[2Tours N Iraq`]

I'm not much of a blogger (I've written a total of 3 so far) but having been a leader in combat, OPSEC is intentionally left vague so that commanders can apply as much or as little as necessary. You might also want to review what the UCMJ has to say as the military are under different set of laws than civilians.

Additionally, when a member of the unit is killed in action there is a communications black out so the family of the deceased can be notified properly. The biggest threat from blogging is the possibility of the insurgents/terrorists gaining knowledge of a predictable pattern and thus setting up ambushes.

Lastly, there may not be much in the way of information for your paper as commanders haven't had to face the issue of blogging before. Your best info might come straight from the source. The online military community at Benefiting the US Army, US Navy, US Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard - Military.com might be of some help to you.

Good luck,
Blane

 

[jeraldjcook]

I'm not much of a blogger (I've written a total of 3 so far) but having been a leader in combat, OPSEC is intentionally left vague so that commanders can apply as much or as little as necessary.

Thanks for the reply. From my research this was the impression I was getting, along with the notion that as instructions are passed down the chain-of-command commanders apply it more broadly than the previous level for fear of not applying it broadly enough.

You might also want to review what the UCMJ has to say as the military are under different set of laws than civilians.

I've looked into this a little, but it's probably worth another look. So far I haven't uncovered anything specific to OPSEC, just obeying lawful commands of superiors. So when your sergeant, Lt., etc, says something would violate OPSEC, you better listen to him/her.

Additionally, when a member of the unit is killed in action there is a communications black out so the family of the deceased can be notified properly.

I strongly believe this to be a sound policy. I'm trying to focus on those stories of infrastructure being built (schools, hospitals, etc), interactions with the Iraqi/Afghanistan people, and other day-to-day happens the media doesn't report.

The biggest threat from blogging is the possibility of the insurgents/terrorists gaining knowledge of a predictable pattern and thus setting up ambushes.

The "predictable pattern" is on of the areas I'm wrestling with in my paper. Very tough to deal with since there are many topics where it would be okay to mention once, but where subsequent occurrences would cause problems.

Another is instances similar to when Colby Buzzell mentioned that during a very long firefight they ran low on water. Because that touched on the level of supplies, it violated OPSEC. Some of the arguments I'm making in my paper is that no one is surprised by these types of disclosures.

Lastly, there may not be much in the way of information for your paper as commanders haven't had to face the issue of blogging before. Your best info might come straight from the source. The online military community at Benefiting the US Army, US Navy, US Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard - Military.com might be of some help to you.

LTG. William Caldwell just took over the Combined Arms College just a short drive from my university. From what I've read, he's a supporter of milblogging and I'm trying to arrange an interview as we speak. I'm getting a bit of the run-around, first getting passed off to Lt. Col., then someone else, now on to the 4th person. In the end, I'll probably end up taking to a private fresh out of boot camp.

 

[Hagan34]

the OPSEC issues that come from blogging , this is just my opinion, is any time a possible threat can gain information useable to their cause by reading said blog.

examples I can think of are...

Naming a Soldiers Unit, by name or nickname (101st Airborne) (Kentucky National Guard) (Rakkasans) all of this can be used to find who and where the soldiers are from and can led to find out more information.

Day to Day actions, 0800 breakfast... 0930 mission rehearsal... 1015 Convoy left wire... this as mentioned before setup a a time frame and can the be used to ambush or inflict larger causalities by know when there are concentration of troops in different areas.

Numbers and Locations, "Today 2 Soldiers with the 25th INF were killed." google 25th Inf Div and see how much info you can get on numbers and location of those Troops.

Im not against Soldiers talking about what they do everyday, It something most people aren't hearing, but should be. I know when people start talking to me about what it was like almost all of them are surprised to hear what goes on outside of the medias grasp.

I remember a post on a public forum that I made after a troop insertion.. basically I wrote, "the other day we did a troop insertion to a dusty field at dawn, what a rush that was." I thought it was vague enough as to not give away any info, lord knows there is only one dusty field in that country but one of the other "military" members politely reminded me of OPSEC and that i shouldn't be posting such information online.



Also as mentioned you may to look at the UCMJ and may want to see if you cant talk to JAG Officer at Ft Riley. If LTG Cladwell has the time I'm sure he will meet with you. I flew him many times and was very personal with us.


Hope that helps some, feel free to PM if you need.

 

[jeraldjcook]

I remember a post on a public forum that I made after a troop insertion.. basically I wrote, "the other day we did a troop insertion to a dusty field at dawn, what a rush that was." I thought it was vague enough as to not give away any info, lord knows there is only one dusty field in that country but one of the other "military" members politely reminded me of OPSEC and that i shouldn't be posting such information online.

Maj. Ray Ceralde is the author of the newest revision of Reg 530. I kid you not, in an interview he claimed that a surge in pizza deliveries to the Pentagon can violate OPSEC because it might tip someone something big is about to happen and that commanders should direct pizza deliveries at different times from different sources to lessen the suspicion. When faced with rationale like that, I can see why many soldiers just give up and stop blogging instead of trying to follow the new OPSEC rules.

Also as mentioned you may to look at the UCMJ and may want to see if you cant talk to JAG Officer at Ft Riley. If LTG Cladwell has the time I'm sure he will meet with you. I flew him many times and was very personal with us.

Thanks for the tip on contacting JAG officers, I'll look into that possibility. They come by the law school a few times a year so I should hopefully have an easy contact. Thanks for your help.

Is the general consensus among military members that milblogging can be done safely, given a bit of clarification on the definition of OPSEC?
Nevermind the fact that the Army discovered 1,813 OPSEC violations on the 878 official military websites and only 28 violations on the 594 registered blogs. I've had no problem downloading Powerpoint presentations clearly showing damage caused by IEDs, a clear OPSEC violation. The Army sure does like Powerpoint, they're everywhere.

 

[Inspector#2]

Not everything released showing IED damage is a violation; methods on how IED's are employed and how to counter them is. Everything I release in the form of pictures is cleared by the S2 shop prior to release. I have never dealt with a blog but most soldiers know the consequences of improperly released information, and I'm not talking about disciplinary actions.
Personally I have no problem with a blogger as long as each entry is cleared by the S2. I’ll be damned if we lose a man due to someone running their gums. This saturation of embedded media and instant information release is not a good thing for military operations IMHO.

I should shut up now before my true feelings come out! Good luck with the paper.

 

[jeraldjcook]

Not everything released showing IED damage is a violation; methods on how IED's are employed and how to counter them is.

Thanks for correction.

I have never dealt with a blog but most soldiers know the consequences of improperly released information, and I'm not talking about disciplinary actions.

That's part of my position in the paper. Soldiers are very aware of the consequences to themselves and others and most/all have no desire to disclose information that would truly violate operational security.
The main portion of my paper is focusing in information that would actually violate operational security compared to the military definition of OPSEC.

Personally I have no problem with a blogger as long as each entry is cleared by the S2.

Maj. Ceralde has said that even though the regulations say each entry needs to go through the S2, that isn't the way it's going to be enforced. Do you now which way it's done?

I’ll be damned if we lose a man due to someone running their gums. This saturation of embedded media and instant information release is not a good thing for military operations IMHO.

I'm not a big fan of the media either. Gone are the days of reporting the facts. Now everyone has an agenda, a position to push, and they only put forth the facts to support them. It's part of the reason I would like to see more soldiers tell their side of the story.

I should shut up now before my true feelings come out!

Could you PM me them

 

[Inspector#2]

Good luck with getting anyone telling you anything other than what is SOP. If they decide to release info outside the authorized channels then they are open for UCMJ action.

"Could you PM me them"
Not a chance in hell, your training to become an attorney.

 

[jeraldjcook]

"Could you PM me them"
Not a chance in hell, your training to become an attorney.

Thanks anyways.

 

[2Tours N Iraq`]

You might want to enquire as to who LTG. William Caldwell's aid-de-camp is then contact that person directly. You stand a better chance of getting an interview with the good general by going through the person who manages his schedule.