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Thursday June 23, 2011 Milblogging.com currently has 3,101 military blogs in 46 countries with 15,894 registered members.  
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Adventures of an Army Wife 18 Jun 2011 
Husband / Father / Sailor Deployment Journal 11 Jun 2011 
navywifechronicles 11 Jun 2011 
boundless 06 Jun 2011 
The Camouflage Keyboard 05 Jun 2011 
Semper Fi Parents 03 Jun 2011 
Household Six: Dual Military, Veteran, and Military Spouse Expressions 02 Jun 2011 
Cyrus Forwood - A Delaware Soldier in the American Civil War 01 Jun 2011 
Ramblings from a Retired Shooter 01 Jun 2011 
Life in a Sandbox 01 Jun 2011 
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What frontline war reporting is really like
Thursday, June 23, 2011, 03:47 AM - News Stories
War reporting: what it's really like.  I ONCE watched a man dying in agony. It was in Afghanistan, I was crouching behind a low wall during a mortar attack and he lay in front of me, eyes bulging like those of a dying hen, his left leg trailing from a string of tendon in a puddle of blood and muck. I will never forget the look on his face...
(The Herald)

The Pentagon's New Vision for Cyber Warfare. When The Wall Street Journal broke the news last month that the U.S. would, for the first time, be classifying cyber attacks as an act of war, the report constituted one of the first leaks from the Pentagon's two-year effort to develop a formal cyber strategy, as it contends with the growing threat of hackers sabotaging U.S. subways, electrical grids, financial systems, and nuclear reactors...
(The Atlantic Wire)

Woman pleads guilty in U.S. Navy Veterans fundraising scam in Ohio. A woman associated with the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, a group whose fundraising has raised questions in Virginia and elsewhere, pleaded guilty today to corruption, theft and money laundering...
(The Roanoke Times)

Making the Facebook Revolution Work for Israelis and Palestinians. A few months ago I was standing at the Qalandia checkpoint near Ramallah, waiting for an Israeli journalist from Israel’s Channel One Television who was scheduled to interview me about the Facebook revolution...
(Turkish Weekly)

Vote on Facebook for the next president of Egypt. In a bizarre pandering to Egypt's social media users, the ruling military has posted a Facebook poll to gauge the popularity of nearly 20 presidential hopefuls...
(New Statesman)


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Military scams both online and offline
Wednesday, June 22, 2011, 03:14 AM
News publications, blogs, and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are regularly warning people of the latest military scams. 

Although some scams are perpetrated on sites like Facebook by imposters pretending to be service members, there are all sorts of ways you could be duped.

Military scams don't just take place online.

Jeff Schogol the writer for The Rumor Doctor (a Stars N' Stripes blog), wrote this week about scammers targeting veterans and military families claiming they have won a sweepstakes from Stars and Stripes.

Forbes and other major news sites have been reporting about Jesus Garcia of Connecticut who is facing charges for falsely claiming to be an Army Ranger wounded during four tours in Afghanistan.  He was able to get money and other things like free train rides as a result of his scam.

An article that appeared online on Memorial Day discussed the top scams that target service members and how the BBB is helping.  The list included:

High priced military loans
Fake rental properties
Phony jury duty summons
Misleading car sales 
Expensive life insurance policies 
Veteran’s benefits buyout plans


You can read the full article here to learn about the scams and how better to protect yourself.


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Commander Mark Kelly to write memoir
Tuesday, June 21, 2011, 06:38 PM - News Stories
Commander Kelly to Retire, Write a Memoir With Giffords.  NASA commander Mark Kelly announced today on his Facebook page that he is retiring from the U.S. Navy and leaving NASA, effective October 1.  “From the day I entered the United States Merchant Marine Academy in the summer of 1982 to the moment I landed the Space Shuttle Endeavour three weeks ago, it has been my privilege to advance the ideals that define the United States of America.”
(The Christian Post)

Israel to Apple: Take down 'Third Intifada' app.  Computer giant Apple has authorized an application called "The Third Palestinian Intifada," which updates users on upcoming protests, features articles critical of Israel and pictures of martyrs, Army Radio reported Tuesday.  Yuli Edelstein, Minister of Public Affairs and the Diaspora, who recently successfully lobbied to remove a Facebook page of the same name, sent a letter to Apple founder Steve Jobs demanding the application be removed.
(Haaretz)

Civil War diary survived years. GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — A Civil War diary credited with saving the life of Nebraska's first lieutenant governor will tell his wartime story as part of a Nashville, Tenn., museum exhibit.  The diary is part of a new exhibit at the Travellers Rest Plantation & Museum commemorating the Civil War's 150th anniversary. The exhibit tells the war's story through the eyes of the soldiers who fought it.
(Omaha.com)

Egypt military posts Facebook poll on next leader.  Egypt's military rulers have posted a Facebook poll to gauge the popularity of nearly 20 presidential hopefuls, an attempt to show their commitment to a democratic transition in the face of rising criticism of their management of the country.
(AP)

Britain Focuses on Dangers of Social Media. Since its inception, the Internet has spawned hackers looking to gather valuable information. These eavesdroppers on computer conversations and social media can create security issues, especially when it comes to military operations.
(Technorati Blog)

Fallen Civil War infantryman's stories come to life in his letters.  Sgt. Stephen Taylor Buckson, of the 4th Delaware Volunteer Infantry, didn't live to tell his Civil War stories.  He was killed in June 1864 as Union forces, trying to disrupt supply lines, attacked Confederate defenses near Petersburg, Va.
(The News Journal)


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Chief Marketing Officer for National Guard
Monday, June 20, 2011, 07:28 PM
It’s a bit unusual to read about a military organization in AdAge, a popular online advertising and marketing news publication.

But if you visited the website today you may have read an interview with Col. Rob Porter of the National Guard, who is the equivalent of a Chief Marketing Officer in the corporate world.

It has nearly 910,000 Facebook likes and 16,000 Twitter followers, a YouTube channel with 7 million monthly views, a Nascar sponsorship, smartphone apps and cutting-edge social-media campaigns.

Mr. Porter's role is critical for the Guard, which not only needs to build its brand and awareness, but also needs to attract high-quality recruits. Social media is proving indispensable in reaching its 17- to 24-year-old target, and while that may not be surprising, the speed and proficiency with which it has embraced social media is notable.

Beth Bulik with AdAge has posted a Q&A interview with Col. Porter that discusses the National Guard’s marketing challenge and how it differs from that of traditional marketers.

You can read the full interview here.


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World War II POW: Beaten, tortured, starved
Monday, June 20, 2011, 04:55 PM - News Stories
World War II soldier tells story of his survival. Beaten, tortured, starved, enslaved, racked with tropical diseases, nearly drowned and brushed by an atomic bomb, Alistair Urquhart never should have survived...
(BYU)

Study finds Facebook users have improved social lives. Military spouse Autumn Whipple, 26, recently moved to Killeen from Fort Carson, Colo., with her husband, Spc. David S. Whipple, and their three young children. She said that Facebook helps her keep in touch with family and friends back home, and meet up with new friends and fellow unit spouses here...
(Killeen Daily Herald)

Twitter Analysis As an Intelligence Tool in Libyan Engagement. The NATO-led Libyan campaign has increased the monitoring of Twitter and other social media in its mission planning, according to the Financial Times. Because there are "too few special forces on the ground", NATO "will take information from every source we can", according to RAF Wing Commander Mike Bracken, the Libyan operation's military spokesman...
(Huffington Post)

Egypt army web page tests presidential hopefuls. – Egypt’s military rulers have launched an online poll to test the popularity of potential presidential candidates, a move analysts said may be aimed at judging appetite for getting a former officer back in the post...
(euronews)   

A replacement soldier's war memories. A Virginia doctor has written a new book recalling his World War II memories of both the homefront in Amsterdam and the last days of the war in Europe.  George A. Tralka was at his family’s James Street home in Amsterdam the afternoon that radio broadcasts were interrupted to report the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Tralka at first thought Pearl Harbor was in Alaska...
(Daily Gazette)

Journalists questioned by military for publishing "false information" released without bail. At around 1pm on Sunday, 19 June, two hours after appearing in front of the military prosecutor, Al-Fajr editor in chief Adel Hammouda walked out of the now infamous C-28 building; where activists and journalists have been called for questioning by the military prosecutor with increasing frequency...
(Ahram Online)

World War II vets share their stories.  Father's Day, often an occasion for bottles of scotch or new neckties, is also a day to let dads share their favorite war stories. The tales in Alameda on Sunday were impressive, including those of the first black aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps and a first-person account of John F. Kennedy's war heroism...
(San Jose Mercury News)   

Britain warns of social media dangers. "Loose Lips Sink Ships," the admonition on information security is as pertinent in the 21st century as it was in World War II, if not more so...
(UPI)  

Egyptian journalists say it's more of same. Some Egyptian journalists say they're still being harassed by the government months after the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak...
(UPI)

NATO Reportedly Uses Twitter To Fight Gaddafi.  Twitter is part of NATO's "fusion center" of intelligence gathering, the organization said during a June 10 briefing. NATO uses the microblogging service alongside other sources that help NATO map out how it can use weapons, as there are not enough forces on the ground to help determine troop positions...
(Huffington Post)


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World's oldest military blogger keepin' busy
Sunday, June 19, 2011, 05:17 AM
Solomon Fein, the World’s Oldest Known military blogger, at 88 years of age, has been very active on his blog as of late.

For good reason -- this month commemorated the 67th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. 

And Solomon, who is a Normandy D-Day vet, wrote about it in case you missed it earlier this month.

On June 6 Solomon wrote:

When you've seen enough bodies of friends or enemies, you stop running for cover when there is shelling from 88s. You get scared of getting out of your foxhole because one of your skittish neighbors is quick on the trigger.You start thinking a little differently.Your existence depends on how good the guy next to you in the field is. He and the others who are still alive, start thinking pretty much the same way. Don't worry about yourself so much, just watch out for your fellowmen, because they are the only thing that is keeping you alive.

Here we are, more than 67 years after this event and I defy you to tell me how many casualties the pre-D day invaders suffered. I'm sure that this figure is best kept with the overall population of American and Allied losses.

The full entry can be read online here.

Prior to his D Day anniversary entry, Solomon wrote two posts leading up to it including D Day First Light and 5 Days Before D Day.

Solomon Fein recently announced he was back to blogging after a six month hiatus, so expect a lot more great stories.


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Activists using YouTube video in Syria
Sunday, June 19, 2011, 01:56 AM - News Stories
Activists Using Video to Bear Witness in Syria. Jamil Saeb stared intently into the bluish light of his laptop screen, feverishly editing video as antigovernment chants rose up the hillside from the makeshift refugee camp on the valley floor below...
(New York Times)

Fliers in a fix turn to Twitter. Airlines take people on some of the most important trips of their lives — to a wedding, a job interview or a trip back home from a war zone. And when things go wrong, passengers are increasingly turning to Twitter, Facebook or YouTube to rant about it...
(Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Bloggers say West violated federal law by diving with American flag.  A couple days before Flag Day, Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West went for what was supposed to be a fun excursion for the Army vet: A patriotic dive off the coast in Broward County. Little did West know he was entering hot water...
(PolitiFact)

What the 'Gay Girl in Damascus' Hoax Says About the Blogosphere.  Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage is one of the most famous novels ever written about combat, in general and in the American Civil War, where the book is set. Yet Crane, who was born six years after that war ended, had never seen combat when he wrote the story. This understandably irritated a number of actual veterans...
(Big Think)

Taking social media by storm. The American adage “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” is equally applicable to Balochistan. No matter how many bullet-riddled dead bodies of missing persons are recovered in a single week or how many liberal professors are systematically assassinated, the news from Balochistan barely makes front page headlines in the mainstream national media...
(The News)

How one Syrian dissident found his voice on the internet. For years, Mohamed Feezo tried to speak up about all the things Syrians were trained to ignore: cronyism and corruption, oppression of the Kurds, aid to the Iraqi insurgency and the preferential treatment given to Alawites, the minority sect of President Bashar Assad...
(The Sacramento Bee)


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Controversy: Facebook soldier not probed
Friday, June 17, 2011, 03:30 AM - News Stories
'Facebook soldier' won't be probed. Soldier who posted photos of herself next to blindfolded Palestinians won't face criminal probe, deputy state prosecutor says; however, investigation to be launched against 'dancing soldier'
(Ynetnews)

Nato using Twitter for airstrikes on Libya. Officials confirm micro-blogging site is one of intelligence gathering tools. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is reportedly information from users of micro-blogging site Twitter to gather information, such as geolocation, to identify air strike targets in Libya, where it is not allowed to send in ground troops.
(Computer Business Review)

Chinese military warns of U.S. cyberwar threat. The Chinese military wants to beef up its cyberdefense efforts as it anticipates greater threats originating from the U.S. "The U.S. military is hastening to seize the commanding military heights on the Internet, and another Internet war is being pushed to a stormy peak," the Chinese military wrote in its official newspaper, Liberation Army Daily.
(CNET)

British Forces News broadcasts from Germany blog.This week British Forces News is live from Germany - bringing you a week of in-depth features and expert analysis about the issues that concern you. Our special correspondent Geoff Meade reflects on his experiences of life in BFG.
(British Forces News)

Through blogs and tweets, new generation of Pakistanis push for change. Meet Pakistan’s “Teeth Maestro,” a dentist who uses his blog to get to the root of the country’s many pains. One day it might be trigger-happy soldiers. Another day it’s corrupt bureaucrats. Sometimes, it’s U.S. meddling.
(Washington Post)

MoD Warns About Twitter and Facebook Through Video Campaign. Recently the United States Ministry of Defence (MoD) has started a video campaign to warn against the perils of social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook etc. The purpose of such a campaign is only to alert servicemen and women of possible security risks that could arise through using Twitter and Facebook. These videos of the awareness campaign are posted on YouTube channel of MoD and there are more such videos planned to be released in the coming months.
(Ground Report)


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New military blogs added to Milblogging
Thursday, June 16, 2011, 02:23 AM
Milblogging.com has now grown to 3,100 military blogs, with several blogs being submitted each week.

The latest batch added since the beginning of June includes blogs written from Afghanistan and Iraq, military spouses who write, a Veteran and a Reservist, parents who are
chronicling their daughter's time in the USMC, and even a blog maintained by the Delaware Public Archives that is being used to repost notes and observations of Cyrus Forwood, a soldier who served in the Civil War and kept a diary.

Here are the latest blogs listed in the Milblogging index.

Husband / Father / Sailor Deployment Journal
Written anonymously using an "Answer Key," this is the daily account of a 14 year Navy Reserve sailor who has been deployed to Afghanistan. Strictly adhering to the rules of OPSEC, it is a raw account of the ups and downs of deployment.

Navywifechronicles
On April 23, 2010, my husband was in a car accident while deployed in Iraq. Needless to say, this day has changed our lives. I write about how we’re picking up the pieces, Navy life, adapting to the civilian world, & silly things our kids say.

Boundless
A general [military] lifestyle blog, I frequently share my photography/design, recipes, & adventures. I'm fairly new to this military life, but I enjoy sharing my perspective + tips and tricks to making the challenges presented fun and humorous

The Camouflage Keyboard
Strange, unbelievable, mundane, and life-changing happenings from a reservist mobilized to active duty overseas.

Semper Fi Parents
A chronicle of my daughter's time in the USMC, as well as articles of interest to any thinking of joining the Marines, articles about Marine Corps history, boot camp training, military news, etc.

Household Six: Dual Military, Veteran, and Military Spouse Expressions
Personal views and opinions on military service, as well as other misc. subjects to include current events.

Cyrus Forwood - A Delaware Soldier in the American Civil War
As part of the State of Delaware's Civil War Sesquicentennial Commemoration, the Delaware Public Archives is using this blog to repost notes and observations Forwood wrote in his diary during his time as a soldier--day-by-day.

Ramblings from a Retired Shooter
A Journal based on my thoughts, experiences, and opinions based on combat experiences and journey with PTSD and other injuries.

Life in a Sandbox
Day to day life of a soldier on a deployment.


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Bad blood between the military and media
Wednesday, June 15, 2011, 08:04 PM - News Stories
The Uneasy Media-Military Relationship.  While the military and embedded media both seek to serve the public good — the military via defense of national security and embeds by ensuring that civilians back home are fully informed of the nation’s foreign policy and wartime commitments — there are nevertheless conflicts that can arise between the two.
(New York Times)

How social media users are helping NATO fight Gadhafi in Libya. Every morning at 7:30 a.m., in the picturesque woodlands of rural Ontario, a retired auto shop manager named Janice Clinch helps her grandson get ready for school and fires up her computer for another day of battle in the Libyan desert.
(The Globe and Mail)

Yon Is Wrong.
Michael Yon is a great guy.  But he’s wrong.  Well, he can’t prove that he’s right, which is much the same thing.  And by championing a bad effort by the New York Times he gets stuck in a tar pit he didn’t have to swim across, but did anyway. I shouldn’t dive in and save him, but because I love him I’m going to do it.
(
Line of Departure)

Hackers attack Indian Army website.
  BANGALORE, INDIA: The Anonymous India, a hacker group, has take its fight against corruption in India to new heights. The group has announced that it has 'successfully' hacked the official website of Indian Army last week to caution the Government against corruption.
(CIOL)

Police: Man Faked War Story To Steal VFW Money.
A north Georgia man faked being an Iraq War veteran and Purple Heart recipient to steal money from a Roswell Veterans of Foreign Wars post, according to Roswell police.
(
WSB Atlanta)

Companies and Individuals Continue to File Trademark Applications for SEAL Team 6.  Last month, Disney attempted to cash in on the Navy SEAL Team 6 name fame by submitting a US trademark application for the name SEAL Team 6.  The US Navy countered with their own trademark submissions and Disney backed down by abandoning its applications.
(
Hot Air)

"Page One": Will the New York Times survive?  "Page One: Inside the New York Times," Andrew Rossi's oddly exciting documentary about the august and struggling flagship of American journalism, is a movie without an ending. How could it be otherwise?
(
Salon)

Communication with spouse linked to PTSD levels. A new study has linked lower levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms with frequent communication from spouses — but only for those with higher levels of marital satisfaction.
(NavyTimes)


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Old News: MOD Guidance on Social Media
Tuesday, June 14, 2011, 08:20 PM - Twitter, Milblogging/Op Sec Guidelines, News Stories
Apparently some news sites and blogs missed the news when it came out earlier this month regarding the British Ministry of Defence issuing new guidance on using social media. 

I posted about it here on June 3.

Here’s a roundup of some of the more interesting articles popping up online today as a result of The Telegraph’s story (better late than never) entitled MoD issues videos warning Twitter generation that 'Careless talk costs lives.

Helen A.S. Popkin for MSNBC writes:
British women simply cannot be trusted with military information!  As Britain's World War II propaganda posters reveal, talking too much to the fairer sex — be it one's mum, or a hot blonde (who's not so dumb) — resulted in the Blitz ... or something.
[More here]

Adam Clark Estes for The Atlantic Wire writes:
It's hard not to make fun of the British Defense Ministry's new public service announcements about social media. Directed at servicemen and women who have mobile phones and computers and Facebook accounts, et cetera, the message is clear. "It's not just your friends and family reading your updates," says one of the new ads, or "adverts" in British. "Think before you tweet/blog/update/tag/comment/check-in/upload/text/share," instructs another.
[More here]

Tom Chivers for The Telegraph writes:
“During the Second World War, propaganda campaigns on both sides of the Atlantic warned Allied personnel to be careful where they mentioned sensitive information. In Britain, the key slogan was "Careless talk costs lives"; famous cartoons by Fougasse showed British citizens talking quietly, not noticing caricatures of Hitler or Goebbels listening in. Another showed a soldier, an airman and a sailor at a party, clearly trying to impress a young woman, above the words "Keep mum - she's not so dumb! In the US, the equivalent was "Loose lips sink ships".
[More here]

Jeff Neumann for the Defamer Australia writes:
The British Ministry of Defence is worried about oversharing military personnel and their oversharing families, so they’ve created a few videos that should really make everyone think twice about careless tweets and Facebook status updates.
[More here]


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Gallagher: Where's the GWOT Fiction Novel?
Tuesday, June 14, 2011, 06:51 PM - Milbloggers in the News
Well-known military blogger Matt Gallagher who published the book Kaboom Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War has a nice piece today in The Atlantic that asks the question, “Where’s the great novel about the War on Terror?”

The article he published has a lot of familiar names among the milblogging community.

Here’s an excerpt:

The American war writing tradition is a proud one, and booming in this era of the Global War on Terror—at least in the non-fiction realm. Hundreds of memoirs and press accounts from Iraq and Afghanistan have been published since 9/11. These works run the gamut from personal testimonies of combat (Colby Buzzell's My War and Kayla Williams's Love My Rifle More than You), to attempted explanations as to how and why these wars unfolded the way they did (Donald Rumsfeld's Known and Unknown), to embedded press accounts by correspondents with infantrymen half their age (Sebastian Junger's War) or exiled Iraqi prostitutes (Deborah Amos's Eclipse of the Sunnis.) There has been such a proliferation of non-fiction war writing over the last ten years that it's nearly impossible to talk to anyone in the publishing industry without hearing phrases like "war fatigue" and "market saturation."

Fiction has proven an entirely different animal. Almost a decade after the first bombs were dropped in Afghanistan, even the most avid bookworm would be hard-pressed to identify a war novel that could be considered definitive of this new generation's battles. The explanations for this vary from the esoteric—wars need to end first before fiction writers can fully capture their impact—to the pragmatic: People don't read fiction anymore.

There’s much more to the story here.


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China has Most Influential Milbloggers
Tuesday, June 14, 2011, 04:14 PM - Milbloggers in the News, News Stories
I’m not making the assertion that China has the ‘Most Influential Military Bloggers’ in the world, but David Axe over at The Diplomat is. 

In an article that appeared online early today, David says few country's milbloggers are more influential than China’s.

Here’s why:

With China possessing so few government-sanctioned outlets for military news, foreign observers of Beijing's military modernization increasingly rely on milbloggers for the latest information. Chinese bloggers have obliged by posting amateur photographs revealing new ships, armoured vehicles and aircraft.

The December revelation of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force J-20 stealth fighter prototype by some enterprising amateur photographers represented the Chinese milbloggers’ greatest coup.

Read the entire article here.


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Vietnam War diary becomes book & other news
Tuesday, June 14, 2011, 03:29 AM - News Stories
Vietnam War diary becomes book
From his tour of duty in Vietnam, Jim Oyster brought back a head injury, a leg injury and a right hand with one less finger.  He also brought back a diary. Hundreds of hand-written pages he filled with the details of what he saw and how he felt fighting against the enemy...
(The Marion Star)

Military's Twitter feed stops publicising troop movements. 
The Finnish Defence Forces have tightened their social media policies in relation to the ongoing Whirlwind exercises, after the operation’s Twitter feed let slip the positions of some troops...
(YLE Uutiset)

Indian hacker group kicked-out by Facebook.
  The Indian arm of a hacker group 'Anonymous' - called Anonymous Operation India - has been removed from Facebook and Twitter...
(NDTVGadgets)

Syrian lesbian blogger is revealed conclusively to be a married man.  Tom MacMaster's wife has confirmed in an email to the Guardian that he is the real identity behind the Gay Girl in Damascus blog, reports Esther Addley...
(The Guardian)

Egypt's Twitter users materialise in first #TweetNadwa.  A gathering of Egyptian activists and bloggers convened Sunday in Dokki, Cairo to take part in the first ‘Tweet Nadwa’, a meeting organised for members of the social networking and micro-blogging service Twitter “to engage in new conversations and discover new contacts” according to organiser Alaa Abd El Fattah...
(Ahram Online)

U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors.  The Obama administration is leading a global effort to deploy “shadow” Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks...
(New York Times)

Honor Through the Ages: Aggie’s Bataan Journal Emerges.  One of America’s darkest military moments came when U.S. defenses on the Bataan peninsula in the Philippines fell to the Japanese on April 9, 1942. But for Capt. Cary M. Abney, Jr. ’34, the mass surrender was just the beginning of an individual battle to ensure the truth about what happened to him and his comrades got out after the war ended...
(Texas A&M News & Inform)

'Don't forget us': History buff edits soldier's war stories.   More than 100 years after his memoirs were first printed, "The Civil War Memoirs of Erastus Winters" have been brought back to life by a Murfreesboro editor...
(The Daily News Journal)

Pentagon Papers to be released. Precisely 40 years after they began to appear in The New York Times, triggering a constitutional crisis over freedom of the press, the Pentagon Papers will be released at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum and other sites Monday...
(Houston Chronicle)

The Civil War’s still-unfolding story: uncovering, cataloging disappearing monuments and stories. For proof, witness an off-the-beaten-path monument nestled between two mid-20th century homes on Sulphur Springs Road in Waynesville. The stone and cement, conical-shaped marker is shaded by trees and clad partly in ivy. A small Confederate flag and wreath are pinned to the ground next to it...
(Mountain Xpress)


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VA Blogger Alex Horton speaks out on NPR
Monday, June 13, 2011, 08:08 PM

Alex Horton Army of Dude


Military blogger Alex Horton who criticized the VA on his personal blog Army of Dude (only to be offered a job by them) did a recent interview on NPR to discuss his role.

If you remember last month, a Federal Times reporter questioned Alex's effectiveness, saying, "now that he's part of the system, Horton isn't showing as much fire."

Well, Alex has responded.

Alex answered a series of questions on NPR's All Things Considered with Rachel Martin including, "How has his tone changed?”

Criticizing will only get you so far, as Alex tells NPR.  Instead of complaining about all the problems, he's hoping he can help fix them.

Several people have commented on the NPR story.  Here are a couple examples:

lakers utah (i_love_ghana) wrote:
unfortunately not everyone can criticize the VA and will get a job. lucky guy

Ronald Hamann (unanimous) wrote:
The physical facilities of the VA are the best. It is the uncaring dotes who work within those walls that damage the system. The attitude of "I'd have a good little government job here, if it weren't for the damn patients," is the prevailing attitude of these "Civil Servants."

You can listen to the show and read NPR's article here.

It’s only a few minutes long, but there’s a lot of good information and insight into what’s been going on with Alex.



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Army imposter makes, breaks reservations
Monday, June 13, 2011, 02:45 PM - News Stories
Here’s an odd story about someone pretending to be a soldier who goes by the initials K.H. 

Instead of being known for scamming single women online or wearing ribbons and badges he didn’t earn, this imposter shows up to restaurants claiming to have just returned from Afghanistan, then makes reservations for large parties and never shows up.

Steve Barnes has the story.

The hoax has been perpetrated at The Epicurean Bistro & Wine Bar in Latham Farms, Provence and T.G.I. Friday’s in Stuyvesant Plaza, Ninety Nine Restaurant in Guilderland and the Macaroni Grill in Colonie, among others. In each case, managers tell me, the reservation is made in person several days in advance, and the “soldier” provides an email and telephone number for confirmation. All of the reservation visits were made between the end of May and early last week, for parties scheduled for a few days after each visit, and all of the of 42 to 48 people  alleged to be attending were said to be recently returned from Afghanistan.

At each restaurant the man in combat fatigues gives the same name; the initials are K.H., but I am withholding the full name because the person who hoaxed area restaurants seems to be an imposter. He claims to be stationed at Fort Drum, an Army base in Watertown, and to hail from San Diego; there are Facebook and MySpace pages for someone with K.H.’s name who is pictured in Army attire and claims a connection to Fort Drum and San Diego. But the real K.H., as described in criminal filings turned up by Times Union Research Director Sarah Hinman Ryan, is several inches shorter and more than 60 pounds lighter than the man who visited local restaurants.

Read the entire story here.


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NATO bombs Libyan forces using Twitter
Saturday, June 11, 2011, 08:24 AM - Twitter, News Stories
You learn something new on Twitter every day. 

Here's an article by the Herald Sun that talks about how NATO scrambled warplanes against Muammar Gaddafi's forces after Libyans tweeted troop movements.

Twitter and Facebook are among a wide range of media and other sources NATO's intelligence officers monitor around-the-clock to identify potential targets in the air war against Gaddafi's troops, the officials said.

"We will take information from every source we can,'' said British Wing Commander Mike Bracken, the Libya operation's military spokesman.

"We get information from open sources on the internet, we get Twitter.''

Read the full story here.


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American military in Turkey social network
Saturday, June 11, 2011, 06:16 AM
With so many social networking sites online, it’s easy to forget so many people and companies built what we call today “social networks” years ago before Facebook and MySpace.

I had the opportunity to chat with Jan Claire, the webmaster of merhabaturkey.com, who reached out to me several weeks ago.  MerhabaTurkey.com is a website dedicated to sharing the stories of those whose lives changed while serving in the American military in Turkey.  It’s one of the first military social networks started back in the nineties.

Here’s a transcript of an email interview with Jan about the website.  I have not edited any of Jan’s comments.

JP:  When did the site launch?

Jan:  The site was originally started by Chuck Maki who was stationed with the U.S. Air Force at Karamursel, Turkey in 1957, during the cold war period. We have never discussed the date he officially launched his website, "The American Military in Turkey" but we believe it to be around 1999. It was one of the first contributor-authored websites, dedicated to - and written by - U.S. military people who served in Turkey. The site, broken down by duty stations, was one of my regular stops in surfing the web. Then, one day in 2002, I noticed the site was gone.  Fortunately, I had corresponded with Chuck and so, had his email address.  I wrote and asked why he dumped his website. He told me it had gotten to be just too much, in addition to his busy civilian career. I've been designing web pages since 1994, so it wasn't as much of a problem for me. It's how I spend my evenings. Occasionally - as funds allow - I add an intern or two to help keep things filed, sorted and to learn the languages used in building web pages.  We do not solicit donations or advertising, so I cover all the costs of the website myself.

JP:  What was the original purpose of the site?

Jan:  The original purpose of the site was to overcome Turkey as a country which was given little thought by Americans, and those who did think about it had visions of camels and caravansarais and romantic stuff from films. Chuck's goal was merely to collect the stories of people who served in Turkey from the U.S. Military and, hopefully, to show what a friend of the U.S. Turkey was in taking the daring step of allowing the U.S. to build and take over bases throughout their country in order to monitor conditions during the cold war.  So the purpose of the site was the original "social network." People stationed in Turkey could submit the stories of their time there, and because every contributor's email address was available, friends could communicate with other friends, and strangers could meet and chew over each others' time there.  Through all this communication, the original purpose of the site, being to collect the stories, changed gradually into a "brotherhood" where the particular U.S. military service - Navy, Air Force, Army, Marines - and even a few Coast Goard - mattered less than exploring the commonalities and differences of their time there.

JP:  Why did you take over the site?

Jan:  I felt the site was important enough to the Cold War lexicon that the stories should continue to be told. I was in the Internet business since 1993 when I created the first live sports broadcast via the Internet. It was the "dial-up" days and people could dial in to the online service, Delphi through their national network of local telephone numbers, and receive, on their computers, the play by play description of the U.S. National Gymnastics Champions. I worked for the U.S. Gymnastics Federation in Indianapolis and found a good partner in Delphi. Later I became Delphi's director of custom networks and there, in Cambridge, Massachusetts,  I was introduced to web design, the people behind the World Wide Web's invention, and had the luxury of being located between MIT and Bolt, Baranek and Newman who played active roles in the invention of the Internet and the Web. Further, Mark Andreeson was busily inventing the first commercial web browser - to be named Netscape - as part of his studies at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. It was a heady atmosphere and the website was part of that.

So later on, when AMIT turned up missing, I couldn't very well let a historical website go by the wayside. Quite the opposite, I felt it needed to be expanded, finding as many contributors and their stories, as possible since each person has their own opinions, memories and spin on how their time in Turkey was spent and the activities they took part in while there. The Military service was the commonality, but the stories vary widely.

JP:  Has social media (i.e. facebook, twitter, blogs) changed the site in any way?

Jan:  I think today's social media are the "snippets" of life. Due to limits on comment lengths, both Facebook and Twitter require brevity.  Our site, MerhabaTurkey.com as it is known now is the "long form" of social networking where each contributor is given all the time and space they need to tell their stories. Like blogs, some of our contributors stories are quite lengthy, some are serialized, others are surprisingly brief.  Further, it serves the purpose of putting people sharing this commonality - being stationed in Turkey - in touch with each other, which usually brings up newly-recalled memories and so our contributors can update their stories as they remember things.

Unusual to all this is the large number of Turks visiting our site. As we've looked into this un-planned-for-but-most-welcome addition to our audience, we've learned that Turkish schools and universities are sometimes assigning students to study our site, as it is a way for Turks to more fully understand the value of globalness of working together, thinking together.

We now make sure we show up at Turkish festivals in the U.S. and wherever possible I purposely look up Turkish folks to call their attention to our website which, if you really dig in and read the various, truthful, and expansive, stories on our website, is a love story to Turkey.

JP:  What's your vision for the site?

Jan:  That's a VERY good question!  I have always felt that as an "editor" I should not necessarily have a vision - at least not one which would skew the stories toward certain selfish goals. I want it to merely be what it is. Each person's stories, as they remember them, good and bad, they way they saw their time there.

When I was at the Naval School base at Bainbridge, MD (no longer there) and learned I was being assigned to Turkey, the comments I got from my fellow sailor were more like pity: "gobble gobble!" was heard frequently, as a tease, from among my friends. But I had been exposed to Turkish language, history and other classes so I was perfectly prepared to visit that gorgeous, historic land. It is my goal to let the world know what a great country Turkey is, how wonderful its people are, and to appreciate the well over 6,000 years of its history and Turkey's care and sensitivity toward its history. If I had my way, everyone would visit Turkey and soak up the history. I mean, where else could you sit and meditate in Mary Magdalene's home, or sit in the third row of an amphitheatre which, 5,000 years ago, put on plays much as they're done today.


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Graphic video diary by dead Libyan soldier
Friday, June 10, 2011, 03:29 AM - News Stories
Al Jazeera reportedly obtained exclusive photographs and video taken by a young pro Gadhafi Libyan soldier before he died in battle.  The images offer a rare glimpse of the fighting from the perspective of a pro Gadhafi soldier but the images have not been independently verified.  The video diary was posted to YouTube by AlJazeeraEnglish.  It shows human rights abuses against pro-democracy fighters.  WARNING: The video is graphic. 
(YouTube)

Air Tran one ups Delta.  After a national outcry against Delta on baggage charges for military personnel sparked by soldier's YouTube video, AirTran announces that all baggage for military personnel travelling on orders would be free.
(11alive.com)

Army recruiting Twitter users.  Emi Kolawole is the latest reporter to write about the Army looking for a ”web content/social media manager” to help them fight the communications war in Afghanistan.
(Washington Post)

Facebook “Licks” (not a typo).  Through July 4, a California-based company is donating 100 service dogs to returning military members based on the number of "Likes" they can gather on the "Dog Bless You" Facebook page, reports Meera Pal.
(WTOP)

Sebastian Junger no longer to report from frontlines. "After the death of photojournalist and friend Tim Hetherington in Libya, Junger resolves to cease front-line reporting. But war, he says, remains one of humanity's master narratives."
(Los Angeles Times)


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Camo-o-Blog: Social Media Summit 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011, 07:15 PM
Harrisburg University is holding a Social Media Summit this September.

Steven Infanti with Harrisburg wrote me earlier to remind me that one of the panels is looking at the military's use of social media today and what civilian organizations can learn from the military and its use of social media.

Steven indicated they're looking for someone to join the panel called Camo-o-Blog: Social Networks and the Military.

If you think you might be a good fit, please contact Steven directly with your credentials:

sinfanti -at- harrisburgu.edu

Here's some more information about the panel:

12:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m., Location: Room 1358

Social media websites have long been a point of conflict in the military. On the one hand, they allow deployed service members to stay in touch with their loved ones, as well as allow commanders to spread information quickly. But then there's the issue of security. What if someone hacked into the military's Twitter account to spread malicious information? Join us for a panel of social media experts as they discuss how the military uses social media and what civilian communication professionals can learn from their military counterparts.

Christine McGuire is a Kabul, Afghanistan-based media consultant for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and U.S. Forces – Afghanistan (USFOR-A). She has served as a web journalist for the coalition since July 2010, heading the command’s official website, as well as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Flickr accounts. Christine earned her B.A. in Government and International Politics from George Mason University.

You can find plenty of information about the Summit here.


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