Lawfare Access Update

Benjamin Wittes
Wednesday, December 8, 2010, 10:57 AM
I have a bit more information regarding the Defense Department's bizarre efforts to stop people from reading Lawfare on grounds that we may be hosting Wikileaks cables (which we are not). I am told that readers in Afghanistan are not receiving the warning that was showing up on computers in Iraq. What's more, I got this email yesterday from a reader deployed in Iraq:
Good news and bad news. I don't get that obnoxious splash screen warning me your site potentially has classified documents (but ultimately allowing me to click through).

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I have a bit more information regarding the Defense Department's bizarre efforts to stop people from reading Lawfare on grounds that we may be hosting Wikileaks cables (which we are not). I am told that readers in Afghanistan are not receiving the warning that was showing up on computers in Iraq. What's more, I got this email yesterday from a reader deployed in Iraq:
Good news and bad news. I don't get that obnoxious splash screen warning me your site potentially has classified documents (but ultimately allowing me to click through).  But, your site is now completely blocked because it is categorized as "Government/Legal;Blogs/Personal Pages."  Certainly, other blogs get blocked by this filter (and many others pass through unmolested).  I can't figure out the rhyme or reason of it.
Terrific. Now that the ACLU and CCR have lost their Al Aulaqi case, maybe they can represent us.

Benjamin Wittes is editor in chief of Lawfare and a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of several books.

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