Dear Ms. Clark,
I have considered your request that we remove Army publications
from the Federation of American Scientists web site. For the reasons
below, I have decided not to comply.
You indicate that we have posted Army documents "illegally." That is
not true. The posted documents are "works of the United States Government"
under 17 U.S.C. 101. Such items cannot be copyrighted, as explained in
17 U.S.C. 105. Nor to my knowledge is there any other law that would
prohibit posting of such documents on a public or private web site.
You threaten unspecified "further action" if we do not comply with Army
regulations governing distribution of records marked "For Official Use
Only." But the Federation of American Scientists, a non-governmental
organization, is not a component of the U.S. Army and is not subject to
internal Army regulations, including regulations on FOUO documents.
Accordingly, our publications are not illegal nor in violation of any
applicable regulation.
I recognize that the Army has a legitimate interest in ensuring that
its online publications are authentic and up to date. I have therefore
added a disclaimer to our Army doctrine web page, indicating that ours
is not an official U.S. Army web site. I have also provided direct
links to the five official web sites.
http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/index.html
I believe this addresses the substance of your concerns, if not the
details.
______________________________
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
web: www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
email: saftergood@fas.org
voice: (202) 454-4691
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PDF Version
From: Electronic Publications (APD) [mailto:EPUBS@hqda.army.mil]
Sent: Friday, May 04, 2007 9:38 AM
To: Aftergood, Steven
Subject: Army Publications (UNCLASSIFIED)
Importance: High
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
You have Army Publications hosted on your website illegally, there are
only 5 Official Army Publications Sites. You are not one of them, you can
link to our publications, but you cannot host them. AR 530-1 is a FOUO
publication, it is not intended for Public release. Please remove this
publication immediately or further action will be taken.
Thank You,
Cheryl Clark
HQDA/OAA/SOA
Army Publishing Directorate,
Electronic Library Section
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
