Musings of Wired Pig

Update 111807 – I was visited by IP 141.116.10.12 (V) (IP) (IP2) today. They looked at the MRAP article. I was hit four times by this IP.

Also I have yet to get any reply from the DOD IT email I sent. I have so far sent the email twice.

UPDATE 110307 – I have found the images on another website and have reposted 3 of them to the original post.

UPDATE: On 10/29 I sent the following email to ROCK-HELPDESK@conus.army.mil

Dear Rock Island DOIM Automation section,

Background:

• I operate a personal blog at http://blog.wiredpig.us.
• I have semi-detailed server logs showing access to my blog from IP 147.216.36.49 on 102707-102808 (see below for copy/paste of the log file)
  
• I received an email from a Yahoo.com email account requesting images be taken off my site claiming they are in violation of a US Army policy prohibiting Army staff and contractors from posing images of battle damaged military equipment.
• The email stated that the images were not approved to be online.
• This email originated from the same IP stated above and during the time frame of the visits to my web site. (see below for copy/paste of the full message, including full header)
• I responded to the Yahoo.com email requesting contact via an official government email address as well as the requesters name, agency and position along with a telephone contact number. To date I have received no reply. (see below for copy/paste of my email response)

Narrative:
I had written a post concerning images I had received of an MRAP Pathfinder that had survived a purported 500lb IED explosion with only vehicle damage. All crew members were purported to have survived with non-critical injuries. This post was made on 102507. You can view the post here.

On 102707 I noticed I was getting a visitor from the Rock Island Arsenal (IP 147.216.36.49). I am always happy when DOD, DOJ or other Government agencies access my blog. The RIA visitor started viewing the site at 1707 (all times are Pacific) on 102707 and the last visit was at 0258 on 102807 totaling 30 page views over 9 hours.

At 2107 on 102707 I received and email from Paul K <paul279_2000@yahoo.com>. The headers show that this email was sent from a machine using the same IP as the RIA visitor and occurred during the time period listed above.

In the email, Paul K states that the images (since removed due to a question over copyright but viewable here from a Google Cache of another web site) are in violation of some unreferenced US Army policy as well as their not approved be online. Approved by who I was not told.

In response to Paul K, I created a post covering the Take Down request sent by Paul K. You can view that post here. The RIA IP accessed this post at 0233 and 0258 on 102807. The post was created at 2149 on 102707 and updated/edited at 0215 on 102807.

Possible surname for Paul may be Kirchgesner based on a search of my site by the RIA IP for that term. Paul K’s Yahoo Profile can be seen here.

Full email and headers from the Paul K email -

Headers and emails are already on the page. Omitted here for space.
Summary:
I feel that your user has attempted to use DOD/US Army policy to stifle and have photographs removed from the the internet that he/she does not personally approve of. I feel that this is abuse. had the email not quoted DOD/Army policy and expressed a personal request to have the images removed we would not be here. The emails use of “We need for these “pictures” to be removed from your website.” indicates deception, an implied connection to the policy stated and implied authority to enforce that policy.
I would like to be kept up to date on this matter. My contact information is below.

Should you not be the correct contact for this information, I ask that you provide me with contact information (email or telephone contact number).

Thank you,

Update 102807 – I have pulled the images from the post out of uncertainty over the copyright status of the images. This decision was made after I spoke to a veteran photojournalist not associated with the DOD and is purely a CYA move on my part. I am not willing to risk my belongings should I have violated a photographers copyright.

The images are available online here from another web site. The cached images from this site show up as Image Theft replacements.

I am still planning on contacting the Rock Island Arsenal IT Directorate and Commanding Officer over this email. I do not believe the take down request was valid and consider it harassment. As stated below, the sender has until afternoon on Monday, Oct 29th, to provide the information I requested or I’ll happily file a complaint and request a formal investigation. I’ll keep you posted.

This post was originally titled Censorship, I have decided to retitle it and reorganize my thoughts on the matter.

On 102707 I noticed quite a few hits to my blog from an IP belonging to the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois. Specifically from the IP address 147.216.36.49. The user(s) were looking at my entry titled MRAP Saving Lives and Democratic Opposition as well as searches for MRAP, IED and a few others (See hit summary below, attached as PDF file). Four minutes after the user(s) visited by About page listing my email address, I received the following “Take Down Request” from paul279_2000@yahoo.com. The email was sent from the same IP that had visited this blog.

Delivered-To: wiredpig@gmail.com
Received: by 10.86.66.9 with SMTP id o9cs89506fga;
Sat, 27 Oct 2007 21:07:48 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.100.216.3 with SMTP id o3mr2929358ang.1193544466693;
Sat, 27 Oct 2007 21:07:46 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <paul279_2000@yahoo.com>
Received: from web30514.mail.mud.yahoo.com (web30514.mail.mud.yahoo.com [68.142.201.242])
by mx.google.com with SMTP id d36si4846029and.2007.10.27.21.07.43;
Sat, 27 Oct 2007 21:07:46 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of paul279_2000@yahoo.com designates 68.142.201.242 as permitted sender) client-ip=68.142.201.242;
DomainKey-Status: good (test mode)
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of paul279_2000@yahoo.com designates 68.142.201.242 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=paul279_2000@yahoo.com; domainkeys=pass (test mode) header.From=paul279_2000@yahoo.com
Received: (qmail 78849 invoked by uid 60001); 28 Oct 2007 04:07:43 -0000
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws;
s=s1024; d=yahoo.com;
h=X-YMail-OSG:Received:Date:From:Subject:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding:Message-ID;
b=oO5bc99gkrz6z5iEArm69BcpK/ASI4IRKhSsitgBjLjdYCWZiv8rkRPQVRvzd1tFEfNpwko+r8f7TRp0jBOCgo+mmweZnE4JHdXzTtCFbVaFFLrhu1Seqf5LM7z5vo7QmDVzoJGuN7dI0Bg8JHv28T48PwhObMmS/xLjRtgVkCs=;
X-YMail-OSG: 2BZf25YVM1k_T__rld9w7PpQ1PL5gUO6u1seJXpZEg3N91aAQOVzQgNszRaZc2ocTmKcEc.962XnSE0OVlQIpjOZFPBl_ZvPzIvt6GFCHaRXuXb1mFQ-
Received: from [147.216.36.49] by web30514.mail.mud.yahoo.com via HTTP; Sat, 27 Oct 2007 21:07:43 PDT
Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 21:07:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: Paul K <paul279_2000@yahoo.com>
Subject: MRAP Saving Lives and Democratic Opposition
To: WiredPig@GMail.com
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Message-ID: <351689.77871.qm@web30514.mail.mud.yahoo.com>Subject: MRAP Saving Lives and Democratic Opposition

Sir/Ma’am,

Account person under the name of (admin) has some pictures of the MRAP military vehicle with IED battle damage on web site:

http://blog.wiredpig.us/2007/10/25/mrap-saving-lives-and-democratic-opposition/

These pictures are not approved to be online in an OPEN Source like this. We need for these “pictures” to be removed from your website.

Thank you.

Paul

Chapter 2
Responsibilities
2-1. All Army personnel

Operations security is everyone’s responsibility.Failure to properly implement OPSEC measures can result in serious injury or death to our personnel, damage to weapons systems, equipment and facilities, loss of sensitive technologies and mission failure. OPSEC is a continuous process and an inherent part of military culture and as such, must be fully integrated into the execution of all Army operations and supporting activities. All Department of the Army (DA) personnel (active component, reserve component to include U.S. Army Reserve, Army National Guard, and DA (civilians), and DOD contractors will-

(1) Do not publicly disseminate, or publish photographs displaying critical or sensitive information. Examples include but are not limited to improvised Explosive Device (IED) strikes, battle scenes, casualties, destroyed or damaged equipment, personnel killed in action (KIA), both friendly and adversary, and the protective measures of military facilities.

__________________________________________________

Do You Yahoo!?
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While I appreciate your email and will happily remove photographs in question, please provide me with: Name, agency and position along with your US Government email account and telephone contact number. Your use of a Yahoo.com email account is not sufficient to warrant my removal of the images based on your purported claims. Please excuse my skepticality in this regard.

 

Also, as I am a CIVILIAN (former military and discharged, but still civilian), your quotation of US Army policy (not fully referenced – no links allowing my verification of this policy) is actually lost on me as well as the fact that it is US Army policy, not United States Code.

 

Should you proved me with the above requested information, I will comply if the prohibition is a violation of established national or operational security laws as pertaining to members of the general public.

If you look in the header of the message to me you will see the same IP that is listed below. Below are all of the hits on the site generated by that IP. I find it highly unorthodox for the military to browse my site and then send me an email from a Yahoo.com address. While the verbiage is semi-official sounding, I doubt I’l receive the information I requested. If I don’t hear back from this user by Monday afternoon (102907) with a valid request I will be contacting Director of Information Management (DOIM) at Rock Island and request and investigation be conducted.

I have no problem with removing photographs from my website that could place service members in jeopardy, if the request is from the proper source. Someone pretending to have this authority will not be tolerated.

I cannot speak to the authors motives and I will not speculate at this time.

Here is a PDF printout of the visits from the above IP.

Popularity: 21% [?]