Army Officials Up in Arms Over FAS Web Site
FAS Note: An Army team that monitors military web sites to ensure that their contents comply with Army regulations became alarmed about the presence of Army publications on the web site of the Federation of American Scientists. Their concerns were detailed in the following sequence of email messages on February 4, 2004:
-----Original Message-----
From: Wolfrey, John W APD [Army Publishing Directorate]
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 4:38 PM
To: Barnes, Garrie APD [Army Publishing Directorate]
Cc: Levister, Barbara J APD; Wehrly, Stephen P APD; Harman, Thomas P APD
Subject: Web Police REPORT Busted!!!
Importance: High
Web Police REPORT Busted!!!
I know this is not a "Dot mil", But you have got to see this collection.
Over 85 or more DA Pubs on this site and growing. What are we here for?
Consider the restrictions and classification too! Pubs such as AR 530-1
OPERATIONS SECURITY (OPSEC); AR 381-26 Army Foreign Material Exploitation
Program and more!
Large collection of DA Publications AR, PAM, FM...etc. Distribution
restricted, classified and others. Archive obsolete too! Seeing is believing.
Re-hosted AR's and Pam's from the Reimer site too....
http://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/
Thank you,
JWolfrey
Army Electronic Library Branch
Standards and Technology Division
Army Publishing Directorate
U.S. Army Services and Operations Agency
Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army
Phone: 703-325-xxxx [DSN: 221-xxxx]
https://akocomm.us.army.mil/usapa/
http://www.army.mil/usapa/
http://www.usapa.army.mil/
FAS Note: Following up on this alert, an Army security officer called for immediate intervention to see that "all Army publications" are removed from the FAS web site.
-----Original Message-----
From: Harman, Thomas P APD [Army Publishing Directorate]
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 8:22 AM
To: Thomidis, Dennis G Mr SECURITY
Cc: Barnes, Garrie APD; Wehrly, Stephen P APD; 'saftergood@igc.org';
Harman, Jeanne E APD; Czekner, John APD; Gregory, Jane D Ms AA Offices;
Wolfrey, John W APD
Subject: FW: SECURITY VIOLATION
Importance: High
Mr. Thomidis -
I was referred to you by our Security officer at APD.
I am responsible for the security of Army Regulations on the APD website,
as well as the AKO/AHP. We take great care to safeguard all of our
publications on AKO and AKO-S, and this is a serious problem that this
website http://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/ is publishing a SECRET
publication (AR 381-26) not even available to regular Army users without
proper credentials to access AKO-S. Other publications on this website
are distribution restricted and not for general public access.
Please advise of the actions you will take to notify this website to
remove all Army publications ASAP. I have no problem with them linking
to Army publications on one of the official Army websites, and I'll
provide the advice to help them do this, but reproducing a secret
publication on a public website is a serious issue with federal
criminal implications.
I am including the POC for the website in the CC line.
If I don't hear from you in the next few hours, I will contact the FBI.
Thomas Harman
Chief, Army Electronic Library Branch
Standards and Technology Division
Army Publishing Directorate
U.S. Army Services and Operations Agency, OAASA
xxxxxxx@us.army.mil - or -
xxxxxxx@hqda.army.mil
(703) 428-xxxx or DSN 328-xxxx
FAS Note: Another alert Army official advised that the sender of the previous message "stand down."
-----Original Message-----
From: Gregory, Jane D Ms AA Offices
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 9:21 AM
To: Harman, Thomas P APD; Thomidis, Dennis G Mr SECURITY
Cc: Barnes, Garrie APD; Wehrly, Stephen P APD; 'saftergood@igc.org';
Harman, Jeanne E APD; Czekner, John APD; Wolfrey, John W APD
Subject: RE: SECURITY VIOLATION
Have you verified that the 1987 version was in fact a classified document?
Until you do, I suggest you stand down. Unclassified Army publications
and documents are in the public domain, you definitely shouldn't
threaten the owners of these websites or our security managers as you
have in the email below [i.e. the preceding message].
Jane D. Gregory
Publishing Policy Analyst
Services and Operations
Office of the Administrative Assistant
to the Secretary of the Army
FAS Note: The Federation of American Scientists rejected the suggestion that "all Army documents" or even the particular document on Foreign Material Exploitation be removed from the FAS web site.
-----Original Message-----
From: Aftergood, Steven [mailto:saftergood@fas.org]
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 10:10 AM
To: Harman, Thomas P APD; Thomidis, Dennis G Mr SECURITY
Cc: Barnes, Garrie APD; Wehrly, Stephen P APD; Harman, Jeanne E APD;
Czekner, John APD; Gregory, Jane D Ms AA Offices; Wolfrey, John W APD
Subject: RE: SECURITY VIOLATION
Thank you for your message. I appreciate your vigilant attention to
national security, but I cannot agree to your request as stated below.
In particular:
1. Your demand "to remove all Army publications ASAP" from our web
site is inappropriate. We do not recognize the Army's authority to
restrict our freedom to publish.
2. All of the Army doctrinal publications on our website were obtained
in the public domain from U.S. Army websites.
3. To the best of my knowledge, AR 381-26 is not a classified document.
Certainly it contains no classification markings.
4. I have reviewed AR 381-26 (the 1987 version on our website) and I
do not agree that it should be withdrawn, regardless of its classification
status. It is a policy document, assigning program responsibilities
to various organizations and persons. I would agree to remove this
document if it contained sensitive operational information, but it does not.
_______________________
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
web: www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
email: saftergood@fas.org
voice: (202) 454-4691
FAS Note: In the final message, the Army official retreated somewhat, withdrawing the claim that a classified Army document was posted on the FAS web site, but pledged continued review of the Army publications on our web site.
-----Original Message-----
From: Harman, Thomas P APD [Army Publishing Directorate]
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 10:57 AM
To: Aftergood, Steven; Thomidis, Dennis G Mr SECURITY
Cc: Barnes, Garrie APD; Wehrly, Stephen P APD; Harman, Jeanne E APD;
Czekner, John APD; Gregory, Jane D Ms AA Offices; Wolfrey, John W APD
Subject: RE: SECURITY VIOLATION
All -
Upon review of a March 1988 DA PAM 25-30, Index of publications, the
1987 edition of AR 381-26 is NOT classified. Subsequent versions of
381-26 are SECRET which set off alarms here.
We will be reviewing all of the Army publications cited on this
website for restricted distribution and/or other restrictions to
public disclosure and will advise OAA Policy and the subject website
if other publications should be withdrawn.
Please understand that we take these issues and potential security
violations very seriously and will err on the side of caution when
we are alerted to the possibility of such a violation. It is not
our intent to withhold information or access to information from
the public.
Thomas Harman
Chief, Army Electronic Library Branch
Standards and Technology Division
Army Publishing Directorate
U.S. Army Services and Operations Agency, OAASA
