Blogs Chronicle War from Soldiers' Perspectives

Hartley authored the blog "Just Another Soldier," filling it with writings and dozens of pictures. Hartley posted graphic photos including one where troops set fire to a dead dog - "a common place roadside bombs are hidden," he wrote. He posted another of Iraqi children giving inappropriate gestures and a photo showing Hartley and a comrade sitting on the commode with their camouflage pants down.

Hartley said his commander didn't appreciate his frank and sarcastic sense of humor.

"In a way I kind of expected it," Hartley said. "I didn't expect the army-if they would find the blog-to have a sense of humor about it."

He said his platoon sergeant asked him to remove the blog as a favor. He did, but continued writing and e-mailed his stories to a list of interested readers. Near the end of his tour he re-published the blog. It was discovered and Hartley, like Buzzell, was confined to his base for a month while an investigation was conducted.

Hartley said he was told he had violated the Geneva Convention for posting pictures of detainees on the Internet. In addition, he was told he violated a direct order when he reneged on the promise to his platoon sergeant and republished the blog. His punishment was a $1,000 fine and a demotion.

Blogging policies take shape

When Buzzell, Hartley and others began blogging from Iraq, there was no blanket Defense Department policy addressing the practice though there were policies prohibiting bloggers from revealing information about certain military activities, and policies that prevented them from blogging on military-owned computers.

Lt. Gen. John Vines issued a blogging policy in April 2005 for coalition forces serving in Iraq. The policy required bloggers to register Web sites with their chain of command, and unit commanders were required to review these sites on a quarterly basis.

In August 2005, the mission of the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell was updated to include personal Web sites and blogs. This group of 10 Virginia Army National Guard members scours official government sites along with blogs by military personnel for OPSEC violations.

Web pages and blogging now make OPSEC violations more serious because of the instantaneous nature of the medium and the global reach, wrote team leader Lt. Col. Stephen Warnock in an e-mail. His cell has examined thousands of blogs, and Warnock said he's seen improvement in the content of milblogs, with fewer items violating security.

The best way for bloggers to adhere to operational security is to use common sense, Warnock wrote.

"If you are posting information that you wouldn't tell someone face to face, why would you post it online?" he wrote.