Clarion Content

Ahhh, change. Despite the lofty rhetoric of the man named Barry, institutional change is mighty hard to effect. Institutions inherently resist change in an effort to cling to power. In Washington, D.C. the military is front and center.

The military, with its own rules and its own code of justice, does not have to respect little niceties like the Bill of Rights. This is why King George the II used military tribunals to give the gloss of the rule of law to his locking-up "enemy combatants" and throwing away the key. The Geneva Convention be damned, eh, old boy?

The more things change...fill-in the blank.

The United States Air Force has blocked its personnel from using military computers to view the websites of the New York Times and other major publications that have published diplomatic cables from Wikileaks trove.

What's their motto, "Nothing can stop the U.S. Air Force!!!"

Apparently, not even the Constitution.

Air Force users who try to view the websites of America's New York Times, Britain's Guardian, Spain's El Pais, France's Le Monde or German magazine Der Spiegel instead get a page that says, "ACCESS DENIED. Internet Usage is Logged & Monitored," according to a screen shot reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The notice warns that anyone who accesses unauthorized sites from military computers could be punished.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the move was ordered by the 24th Air Force, which is responsible for maintaining Air Force computer networks.

Labels: Politics, technology