From: [redacted]
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 4:03 PM
To: 2-2 AVN Staff; 2-2 ASLT COs; 2-2 ASLT 1SGs
Subject: FW: Wikileaks data on Gov’t Computers & Personal Owned
Computers (UNCLASSIFIED)
Importance: High

ALCON,

Below is the guidance for viewing material on Wikileaks’ website.  To
summarize the below, the Wikileaks website is not to be viewed on a
Government computer, the information is still considered to be
classified and any computer found containing classified information
(i.e. information from Wikileaks) will confiscated and subsequently
wiped.

If there are any questions please contact the S2 office.

v/r

[redacted]
CPT, MI
2-2 AASLT BN S2

—–Original Message—–
From: [redacted]
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 11:05 AM
To: [redacted]
Subject: Wikileaks data on Gov’t Computers & Personal Owned Computers
(UNCLASSIFIED)
Importance: High

BLUF: Do not view released or published classified data found on the
internet (Open Source) on unclassified Government systems OR on personal
owed systems. (See caveats)

Department of the Army policies regarding the issue can be found in AR
380-5 Information Security and AR 25-2 Information Assurance. All of the
information is still considered classified. Although now that it can be
found via open source, DOD still considers it as classified until
further notice and should not be viewed or process on a designated
unclassified government computer. Should a unclassified computer be
found containing classified information, it will need to be isolated and
wiped to remove the information.

As for viewing the information via personal computer, I have not seen
any official message traffic preventing military personnel from viewing
the information; however should a personal laptop be found with
classified information on it, it will be confiscated with the potential
for a 15-6 investigation based on the information on an unapproved
system and improper storage.

AR 380-5, Chapter 10-2 a.

and

AR 25-2

4-31. Employee-owned information systems a. Prohibit the use of
employee-owned information systems (EOISs) for classified or sensitive
information.

AR 25-2 Chapter 3-3

c. General users. Use of Government IS and access to Government networks
is a revocable privilege, not a right.

Users are the foundation of the DiD strategy and their actions affect
the most vulnerable portion of the AEI. Users must have a favorable
background investigation or hold a security clearance and access
approvals commensurate with the level of information processed or
available on the system. Users will-

(1) Comply with the command’s AUP for Government owned ISs and sign an
AUP prior to or upon account activation.

(2) Complete initial and/or annual IA training as defined in the IA
training BBP (https://informationassurance.us.army.mil
<https://informationassurance.us.army.mil/> ).

(3) Mark and safeguard files, output products, and storage media per the
classification level and disseminate them only to individuals authorized
to receive them with a valid need to know.

(4) Protect ISs and IS peripherals located in their respective areas in
accordance with physical security and data protection requirements.

(5) Practice safe network and Internet operating principles and take no
actions that threaten the integrity of the system or network.

(6) Obtain prior approval for the use of any media (for example, USB,
CD-ROM, floppy disk) from the SA/ IAM.

(7) Scan all files, attachments, and media with an approved and
installed AV product before opening a file or attachment or introducing
media into the IS.

(8) Report all known or suspected spam, chain letters, and violations of
acceptable use to the SA, IAM, or IASO.

(9) Immediately stop using an infected IS; and report suspicious,
erratic, or anomalous IS operations, and missing or added files,
services, or programs to the SA/IASO in accordance with local policy.

(10) Not disclose their individual account password or pass-phrase
authenticators.

(11) Invoke password-protected screen locks on your workstation after
not more than 15 minutes of non-use or inactivity.

(12) Logoff ISs at the end of each workday.

(13) Access only that data, control information, software, hardware, and
firmware for which the user is authorized access.

(14) Access only that data that they are authorized or have a need to
know.

Should someone have additional information regarding this issue please
send to me so I can review and disseminate.

V/r,

CPT [redacted]
BDE S2, 2 CAB, 2 ID

I’ve redacted the names in the emails; what matters is that they came from the BDE and BN S2. For those of you not in the Army, the S2 is the information security office; the bit of each unit in charge of classification, and the officer who signs as S2 is the person in charge of information security for that unit.

The policy they lay out here actually seems pretty sane to me: even though they’re threatening confiscation and erasure of personal computers discovered to have classified data on them, it’s not like they’re proposing to audit everyone’s individual PC; they’re just reiterating already extant policy. As it stands, on your own time and internet you’re perfectly free to look at this; just turn on porn mode and prevent your browser from caching anything!

Tank fire sounds like a bass drum the size of a stadium. It is louder than thunder. A kilometer away from the firing, it rattled the walls of a building strongly enough that I felt the pressure wave passing while inside. It is the boom of the hammer of the gods pounding out a new mountain range.

Tank fire is loud enough that I could hear it inside a Black Hawk in flight, at least 3k away, over the noise of the engines and through the two layers of ear protection that are mandatory for flight crew.

None of this is exaggeration. I was deeply impressed by the sound of cannon.

At 1700, it seems, it gets set off with a blank charge daily.

When this happens, there are a few consequences. A 20-foot fireball shoots briefly out the muzzle. A shower of tiny unburnt gunpowder particles clatters onto the helicopter. And the sheer noise of it punches you in the chest loud enough to make you step back.

Next time I’m at Cp. Casey at 1700, I’m wearing ear protection.

Working on this has been an education. I’ve written before, but only short fiction and nonfiction, not comedy scripts. I’ve shot video before, but only in webcam/home movie contexts. I’ve never even attempted to edit video before. All I bring to the table is an active mind, a powerful computer, and a borrowed camcorder that was on the low end of the scale a decade ago.

Actually, those may well turn out to be sufficient. The basic plan was to take five times as much footage as would end up in the final cut, and spend five times as much time editing as filming; so far that’s proving an effective strategy. Still, I can’t help but sense that unless I pull several more all-nighters working on it, this thing isn’t going to be good enough.

As for what I learned today in particular, there are two major points. The first is that even though this ancient video device claims to have native support in Windows 7, it simply doesn’t appear when plugged in. It’s a good thing I have a spare old XP box lying around, or the editing process would be even more painful. Also, while transcribing these digital video cassettes is at least easier than working with analog, they still have a major drawback in comparison to solid-state storage: they only transfer their bits at 1x speed, meaning that every hour of video takes an hour to transcribe before I can begin editing. It’s an anomaly in a world in which everything else digital happens at some high multiple of realtime.

If only I got paid overtime, I could double my salary. At least I can probably show the Army that they’ve got a bargain in me.

[edit 20100531:2152]

Ok, so the actual numbers worked out like this: 2 hours filming to produce 1 hour film. 15 hours of editing later, I managed to complete this 8 minute first draft. Submitted it to the XO for review, and he said that with this quality, the maximum length should be 5 minutes. So: this draft is guaranteed to contain rare material not contained in the final release! I’ll put the final version up when it’s done; the challenge is to use the cutting to improve the overall quality.

[edit 20100531:2250]

Oh yes: I don’t expect this to be comprehensible, let alone amusing, to anyone who isn’t already familiar with the outgoing commander of 2-2 ASLT. 90% of this is in-jokes.

[edit 20100601:0437]

Final cut. If it’s not down to five minutes exactly, it’s at least less than six; it would have been very difficult to remove much else without gutting it. Enjoy!

What’s a little less obvious until you’ve actually seen for yourself is that whoever’s in charge is clearly a huge fan of SimCity. It’s a big, successful city, so there’s no question that they’re good at it. Still, it also shows some of the limitations of the engine: vast stretches of perfectly identical apartment buildings, with perfectly identical parking lots, tiled out for miles. There are stoplights at every intersection, regardless of their utility in helping traffic flow effectively. Even the terrain seems pulled straight from the game: vast swaths of perfectly flat ground interrupted by hills too steep for anything except trees and the occasional monument at the crest.

Will Wright’s games are notable, among other things, for including very user-friendly tools which can be used to rough out basic ideas for complex things like architecture, ecosystems, creatures, and urban planning. Until now, however, I’d never expected to see anything pulled directly from the game and implemented in reality exactly as it appeared in the simulation.

Now that I’ve seen it, it’s still hard to believe, but the evidence is hard to dispute.

It’s not that huge a waste, tossing an extra liter of fuel from a helicopter which burns through that much every eight seconds, but it somehow offends my sense of frugality. What’s interesting is if I imagine it as a sacrifice to appease Master Caution, the great gremlin god of rotorcraft, the sense of waste vanishes entirely.

I’ve never thought much about the origins of pagan ritual, but I can’t help but wonder now how much of it evolved from a similar mental redirection.

-15 minutes: Friends are encouraging, but everyone repeats one caution: no matter what, do not touch your face with your hands. Keep them behind your back if possible.

+0 minutes: The immediate effect isn’t actually very dramatic. The mouth burns, of course, but not much more so than when eating any normal hot pepper. There is an instinctive desire: “This is not good food. Spit it out immediately.” However, it is not difficult to override that and chew and swallow. The taste, so far as that sense still functions, is actually pretty decent.

+1 minute: Every facial organ of fluid production, from the salivary glands to the tear ducts to the nose runners, is working in overtime. The face itself is flushed, and the entire body is slick with sweat. However, the only real distress is the psychological one of being unable to wipe the various fluids off the face. Physiologically, this is perfectly possible; it is just a very bad idea.

+10 minutes: At this point the stomach begins to hurt. Be aware that vomiting may begin with no warning or preamble. Speech is possible, but the voice is a hoarse croak.

+15 minutes: Bread is suggested as a means of cooling the mouth. It is tried but does not work. At this point, the mere notion of keeping something in the mouth that is not actually attached there is vaguely nauseating, and to swallow may well be physically impossible.

+20 minutes: Burying the face in a double handful of ice cubes turns out to be startlingly nice, so long as there is someone around willing to carry the ice. Do not trust onlookers who claim that this does not work: they lie. Another benefit is that this pose makes for memorable photos.

+30 minutes: Physical effort beyond the minimums of breathing and standing gets nauseating quickly. Attempting to walk more than a few dozen yards can induce vomiting. The facial fluid organs are all still going strong. Most of the body is shivering with chill while the head and neck are still flushed and hot. It is an unusual sensation.

+1 hour: A long cold shower goes a long way toward improving things. The face is still flushed and there is an aftertaste but otherwise physical symptoms are mostly gone. Consumption of food and beverages is possible, with an interesting side effect: everything tastes extremely, unnaturally sweet.

+18 hours: The sore throat goes away around here.

+24 hours: The sweetness of food is still amplified, though the magnitude of amplification seems to be diminishing.

Further results pending.

The Army has no policy preventing individual soldiers from using their own airline miles accounts to profit from these flights. It also has no policy preventing a soldier from upgrading their seat, providing they pay for it themself.

Delta, on the other hand, wants over two thousand dollars more to upgrade that seat. On the one hand, it’s a fifteen hour flight. On the other hand, there is no way I’m shelling out that much money for fifteen hours, even though it does mean the difference between a coach seat and a fully-reclining bed-chair. (One might be tempted to call that first-class accommodation a ‘couch seat.’)

Oh well. At least I’m getting 11000 free airline miles out of the deal. After the next roundtrip, I’ll have enough to upgrade to first class to pretty much anywhere in the world for free.