Sunday I wrote about an Agence France-Presse article that says U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has banned camera phones at military installations in Iraq and was planning to issue orders banning them from military installations worldwide.
I wrote that I wasn't sure the report was accurate and was awaiting confirmation. It now appears there's at least some truth to the report. From picturephoning.com I see that Xeni Jardin on BoingBoing has more and says the U.S. Department of Defense on April 24, 2004 issued a directive about wireless devices (see below).
The Directive, available in a pdf file, is about "The Use of Commercial Wireless Devices, Services and Technologies in the Department of Defense (DOD) Global Information Grid (GIG)." Reading the Directive, I see it applies to all wireless devices, everything from wireless-enabled laptops and PDAs to cellular phones to remote sensors to "any other commercial wireless devices capable of storing, processing or transmitting information."
The Directive is signed by Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense.
Directive's overall provisions
The Directive's two broad provisions are:
"Directs the development and use of a Knowledge Management (KM) process to promote the sharing of wireless technology capabilities, vulnerabilities and vulnerability mitigation strategies throughout the Department of Defense
"Promotes joint interoperability using open standards throughout the Department of Defense for commercial wireless services, devices and technological implementations."
The Directive's more specific provisions refer to such issues as: Encrypting and authenticating voice and data communications, banning wireless devices from sensitive areas, storing information in wireless devices, requiring electromagnetic screening to detect wireless devices, requirements for anti-virus software and disabling personal area network technology.
More info. on NPR
Xeni says later this week she will be providing more information about this Directive on National Public Radio's "Day to Day" program.
I believe that most of this ban is directed primarily at "classified" locations in the US, i.e. those handling top secret sort of work like the NSA, DIA, CIA, etc. It isn't that much of a suprise as personal cameras in many of these facilities have been banned for decades.
Posted by: Andrew Leyden | Wednesday, May 26, 2004 at 11:47 AM
The evidence would suggest that the ban is not in effect yet. Or if it is in effect it is not working. No shortage of pictures that are still coming in. Check out our last 2 reports:
http://www.blueherenow.com/blueherenow/now/reporters.php
Cheers,
Mike.
Posted by: Michael Tippett | Tuesday, May 25, 2004 at 05:52 PM