[THS] Air Force cutting off access to WikiLeaks news

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Air Force cutting off access to WikiLeaks news
By the CNN Wire Staff

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/14/us.wikileaks.government/index.html?hpt=C1

(CNN) -- The U.S. Air Force is denying its personnel access to websites carrying
documents released by WikiLeaks, including those of some news organizations, a
spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The White House Office of Management and Budget has already forbidden federal
employees and contractors from accessing classified documents publicly available on
WikiLeaks and other websites via computers or mobile devices. But Maj. Toni Tones
said the Air Force has cut off access to over 25 sites, including WikiLeaks and three
newspapers that have worked with the site to release a cache of U.S. diplomatic
cables -- The New York Times, The Guardian in Britain and Germany's Der Speigel.
"This is consistent with the direction received in August 2010 that stated Air Force
personnel should not access the WikiLeaks website to view or download the classified
information," Tones told CNN.
The other sites may not necessarily be WikiLeaks-related, Tones said but she couldn't
explain what other sites were blocked and why. "We look at these sites on a daily
basis routinely," so the number changes day by day, she said.
The government -- particularly the State and Defense Departments, whose
documents have made up the lion's share of the WikiLeak leaks -- has been reviewing
security as it pertains to accessing documents on its secret servers, with an eye
toward preventing unauthorized leaks.
But some see no logic in barring access to documents that are now, like it not,
publicly accessible.
"This seems like a rather pointless protest," said CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.
"Our enemies can see the documents, but not those whom we trust to defend our
country."
WikiLeaks, which facilitates the disclosure of secret information, began releasing a
cache of more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables from around the world in
November. The site previously released hundreds of thousands of military documents
from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A U.S. Army intelligence specialist, Pfc. Bradley Manning, is suspected of releasing
the documents to WikiLeaks. Manning is currently awaiting trial on charges of illegally
downloading classified material and providing video of a 2007 helicopter attack in
Iraq to WikiLeaks.