15 Dec 2010

US Air Force cutting off access to WikiLeaks news

The U.S. Air Force is denying its personnel access to websites carrying documents released by WikiLeaks, including those of some news organizations, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

blocked

The White House Office of Management and Budget has already forbidden federal employees and contractors from accessing classified documents publicly available on WikiLeaks and other websites via computers or mobile devices. But Maj. Toni Tones said the Air Force has cut off access to over 25 sites, including WikiLeaks and three newspapers that have worked with the site to release a cache of U.S. diplomatic cables -- The New York Times, The Guardian in Britain and Germany's Der Spiegel.

"This is consistent with the direction received in August 2010 that stated Air Force personnel should not access the WikiLeaks website to view or download the classified information," Tones told CNN.

The other sites may not necessarily be WikiLeaks-related, Tones said but she couldn't explain what other sites were blocked and why. "We look at these sites on a daily basis routinely," so the number changes day by day, she said.

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