Lt. Daniel Zimmerman, an infantry platoon leader in Iraq, puts a blog on the Internet every now and then "to basically keep my friends and family up to date" back home. It just got tougher to do that for Zimmerman and a lot of other U.S. soldiers.
No more using the military"s computer system to socialize and trade videos on MySpace, YouTube and nine other Web sites, the Pentagon says. Citing security concerns and technological limits, the Pentagon has cut off access to those sites for personnel using the Defense Department"s computer network. The change limits use of the popular outlets for service members on the front lines, who regularly post videos and journals.
"I put my blog on there and my family reads it," said Zimmerman, 29, a platoon leader with B Company, 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment.
He"s regularly at a base where he doesn"t have Defense Department access to the Internet, but he has used it when he goes to bigger bases. He"ll have to rely on a private account all the time now. Memos about the change went out in February, and it took effect last week. It does not affect the Internet cafes that soldiers in Iraq use that are not connected to the Defense Department"s network.
The cafe sites are run by a private vendor, FUBI (For US By Iraqis).