In a lawsuit () filed in U.S. District Court in Washington last week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said that despite several requests for information from the Army unit, known as the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell (AWRAC), no answers have been provided.
Marcia Hofmann, a Washington-based staff attorney for the EFF, said the FoIA lawsuit is aimed at protecting free speech and privacy and helping soldiers and other Americans understand how and why Web sites and soldiers' blogs are being monitored. "The idea is to get more information on what the Army is doing," Hofmann said. "Some soldier bloggers choose not to blog because of concerns about what they can and can't say" online.
The EFF wants to know how AWRAC finds and monitors Web sites and blogs and how it asks people to remove information from them, she said. The EFF also wants to know what specific rules and protocols the unit uses to determine what information is sensitive and why, as well as whether blogs and Web sites of civilians are also being scrutinized, she said.
"This is a compelling question ... and the public should know more about it," Hofmann said.
In an about the lawsuit last week, the EFF said that some bloggers have cut back on their posts or shut down their sites after being contacted by the AWRAC. "Soldiers should be free to blog their thoughts at this critical point in the national debate on the war in Iraq," Hofmann said. "If the Army is coloring or curtailing soldiers' published opinions, Americans need to know about that interference."
Hofmann acknowledged that the military "requires some level of secrecy," but added that "the public has a right to know if the Army is silencing soldiers' opinions as well."
Gordon Van Vleet, public affairs officer for the Army's Network Enterprise Technology Command/9th Signal Command, which oversees AWRAC, said he could not directly comment on the EFF lawsuit but was able to respond to written questions about the unit.
AWRAC, which is part of the Army Office of Information Assurance and Compliance, "notifies webmasters and blog writers when they find documents, pictures and other items that may compromise security," according to the Army. "AWRAC reviews for information on public web sites which may provide an adversary with sensitive information that could put soldiers or family members in danger. AWRAC assesses the risk the information poses to the military and determines if the next step is to request the information be removed."
The unit, which is based in Fort Belvoir, Va., was created in 2002. Its chief mission is looking for operations security violations, such as posted information that may put a soldier or a family member at risk, including Social Security numbers, addresses or other identifying information. The number of personnel working within the AWRAC was not released because of security concerns, according to the Army.
Using various software online search tools, the unit's personnel monitor public Web sites for sensitive information using key words such as "for official use only" or "top secret," while recording the number of times the terms are found on a site, according to the Army.
The unit uses Department of Defense and Army directives and regulations to determine whether any of the information found violates security, Van Vleet wrote. "Additionally, each Web Risk Cell [member] has more than 40 hours of [operations security] training helping them understand what to look for and then we educate on the First and Fourth Amendments [of the U.S. Constitution]. We educate the cell members so they can educate others."
If information is found on a soldier's Web site or blog that is seen as an operations security violation, "a phone call [is made] or [an] e-mail is sent to the affected user and/or their leadership explaining what we found," Van Vleet said. "What happens after that is up to the user/leadership." The unit has no legal authority to ask for changes and "does not 'force' changes to content," nor does it force a blog or site to be shut down, he said.
Since blogs became popular several years after the unit was formed in 2002, information is now being disseminated to military personnel about content that threatens military security, Val Vleet said. "Blogs are fairly new, and they are growing in size and popularity. Because of their newness and the fact that anyone can participate, AWRAC helps to educate our soldiers."
In addition to reviewing sites and blogs of military personnel, the unit also "reviews public sites for material [or] information posted by soldiers that contains operations security violations," Van Vleet said. The unit does not have legal authority to demand changes in those sites or blogs either, he said.
Final decisions on all security questions are made by the soldier involved and his or her military leaders, according to the Army. "AWRAC doesn't make the kinds of decisions that require an appeal," Van Vleet said. "[Its] reach only extends as far as a phone call or e-mail sent to the affected user and/or their leadership."