Last week the Pentagon announced that soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan would no longer be able to use military computers to access You Tube, My Space and eleven other popular websites. Much of the cable news chatter jumped on this as the Pentagon cutting off our boys and girls from stateside cyber-goodies so all their attention could be focused on doing the impossible and letting Bush’s surge succeed. (As if it has a any hope in the hell that Iraq has become.) It would seem however that quite the reverse is true. The brass are more concerned about what grunts might be uploading from their cameras and cell phones, and the order is in line with the new Iraqi government policy banning photographers and camera operators from filming bombing scenes, meaning video taken by citizens and uploaded to YouTube is now the only imagery the world sees of the devastation.
For background see Huffpo
The secret words are Night & Fog
Well thank you kindly, my friend.
ReplyDeleteWho knew that the dating and/or funny-menthos-and-coke-trick sites could be co-opted for truth telling? Not the PTB, I suspect, or they would have done something about it earlier.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Gil Scott Heron is sick of people telling him that yes, it will be televised? Though to be fair to him, CBS, NBC etc. will be desperately concentrating on the latest version of the Paris Hilton flap while the YouTubers are uploading the cell phone clips of the fighting in the streets.
I always had a problem with Gil Scott Heron. The revolution HAD to be televised. I remember during the 1992 LA Riots, I made my a round the city watching the skies, because the TV choppers always circled the latest flashpoint like buzzards and provided a warning.
ReplyDeleteWhat's really needed is a revolution to televise.
When whole wide world is watching, its watching on TV.
Farren, you realize you're quoting Dylan's "Time They Are A Changing" which is now a Kaiser Permanente commercial.
ReplyDeleteOh shit. You're right. I think I'll hang myself. But fortunately I'm clean out of rope.
ReplyDelete