A blog dedicated to public records requests and Monterey County news.

Monday, December 2, 2013

Stonewalled by the Defense Department on Guardian block

I am being stonewalled by the U.S. Department of Defense.

This summer I wrote a story about The Guardian being blocked on Army bases because of the leaks by Edward Snowden.

As a follow up, I did a public records request to see all the websites the Army was "filtering" on its bases.

got the request back, which showed the Army had only blocked one website all year - a link to a 2010 diplomatic cable from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on The Guardian's website.

This is weird because:


  • The diplomatic cable had been on the website for three years.
  • The Army told me in June it had restricted access to The Guardian because of the National Security Agency leaks. 
  • The same cable is on the New York Times website and not blocked there. 

  • To get to the bottom of this I contacted the Army Network Enterprise Technology Command, or NETCOM, because it had answered my questions for the story in June. 

    This time, the agency's spokesman Gordan Van Vleet said I needed to contact U.S. Army Cyber Command (NETCOM is a subordinate to Army Cyber Command). So, I made some calls and was told to contact Jennifer Downing, a spokeswoman for the command. 

    On Nov.22, I emailed Downing (at the time I couldn't find a phone number) about some questions about my public records request. She emailed back on Nov.25 that "OSD Cyber PAO will be replying to your questions below. I am passing your information to him."

    She did not bother to tell me who it was or what "OSD" meant but - after two emails - she coughed up a name and phone number. The man who would answer my questions was Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Damien Pickard. 

    I called Pickard on Tuesday and got him on the phone right away. I was feeling good about it because Pickard said that he had been consulted about my Freedom of Information Act request earlier in the summer. 

    Unfortunately, he had to get going to a previous engagement and would call back in an hour and a half. I normally just start asking questions but, for some reason, I just let him go. 

    He never called.

    So I called later that day, again on Wednesday and now Monday. Nothing. 

    I am not giving up. I still have plenty of folks to keep bothering and I've only become more determined. Yet I thought it was worth noting on my blog that there seems to be a coordinated effort not to talk about this.  

    The Army blocking an individual website on its bases made international news, I think with good reason. The Army did admit it and explained why (classified information on those websites, etc.) but just what the heck is so bad about this public records request that no one wants to give any answers?