Subject: [NEXTEL-1] DoD denies ban on camera phones

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 16:14:25 -0400

DoD denies ban on camera phones
By Jeffrey Silva
May 26 13:40:00, 2004

WASHINGTON—The Department of Defense denied adopting a policy against
camera phones, saying imaging devices are already covered by guidelines
for wireless communications by the military and the Geneva Convention’s
treatment of prisoners of war.

“There is a new policy—but it wasn't signed by Mr. Rumsfeld. It had
nothing to do with cameras, and it wasn't about Iraq,” said Kenneth
McClellan, a DoD spokesman.

The camera-phone issue arises at a time when the Pentagon is under siege
over digital pictures showing abuses of prisoners by U.S.  soldiers in
Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.

“The new directive is about wireless devices and how they can be used on
the Global Information Grid where DoD does its business,”said McClellan.

On April 14, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz signed a
department-wide wireless directive referenced by McClellan.
“Basically, we are in a situation today where everyone is using a cell
phone or a Blackberry or some sort of wireless device that can be
carrying voice, imagery or text—and we either need that to be highly
encrypted or we need it off of DoD systems—because basically we don't
want to be in a situation where any guy with a scanner can figure out
what we are about to do. That would really put us in a jam in a war
situation,” said McClellan.

“As to cameras in prisons,” added McClellan, “Gen. [John] Abizaid or his
commanders and lawyers may be looking at the risk those devices caused,
but that would be a totally separate discussion.”

The Bush administration has begun a shakeup of military command in Iraq
as a result of the Abu Ghraib controversy.

http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=18255

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