US Army declared war against military data leaks but its security program hasn’t  met with enthusiasms by  privacy groups that harshly criticized the initiative to monitor and eventually censor websites and soldiers' blogs .

According to the Register  , the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sued the US  Department of Defense after the Department of Defense and Army failed to respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests about the blog monitoring programme.

 All federal agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Army are required to keep to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that burdens institutions to disclose records requested in writing by any person. The EFF focuses on the fact that an Army unit called the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell (AWRAC) has the charge to notify webmasters and bloggers when it finds "sensitive information".

Anyway bloggers sometimes complaint that they are often  coerced to censor also those passages that have nothing to do with military information but actually deal with their personal feelings about war.

"Soldiers should be free to blog their thoughts at this critical point in the national debate on the war in Iraq," EFF staff attorney Marcia Hofmann said. "Of course, a military effort requires some level of secrecy. But the public has a right to know if the Army is silencing soldiers' opinions as well. That's why the Department of Defense must release information on how this program works without delay."

On the other hand, an Army statement highlights that : "AWRAC notifies webmasters and blog writers when they find documents, pictures, and other items that may compromise security. AWRAC reviews for information on public websites which may provide an adversary with sensitive information that could put soldiers or family members in danger. AWRAC assesses the risk the information poses to the military and determines if the next step is to request the information be removed."

In spite of the fact that the AWRAC has no legal authority to impose changes to postings or to take down a certain website, no member of the US Army would dare make a stand. Indeed, the Unit has much influence since just the fact that a soldier's superiors get informed about similar facts, could represent a concern for the soldier himself. 

This initiative to support soldiers' right of expression  is a part of the EFF’s  FLAG Project , which uses FOIA requests and litigation to cast a light on government'sAbuses about privacy.  

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