Quote Originally Posted by Steve Blair View Post

I tend to run closer to John and Abu's position (at least as I understand it). On one hand the military complains that people don't understand them, and then they start restricting access to what used to be open source information that might help people understand them. Sure, there's stuff you don't want the bad guys to know. I get that, and it makes sense. But I'm starting to feel that the broom is sweeping too wide now.
I fielded the same complaint from a major (military friendly) author recently, who got great access from the USMC and less from the Army. When criticized that his upcoming book is "Marine centric", his basic response was "they gave me access, I tried the army, but they wouldn't give me access to FOUO stuff I need to tell the stories".

Current security guidelines make no distinction between sharing with a US civilian (retired military) and a terrorist from Afghanistan. What drives the caution is the fear of losing a security clearance, which can end a career.