Aug. 23, 2006. 01:00 AM MELINDA DALTON TORSTAR NEWS SERVICE http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1156284610693&call_pageid=970599119419
KITCHENER, Ont.—A Kitchener soldier who has been blogging in Afghanistan for friends and family back home has been ordered to stop. The military told Matt Austin, 21, to remove all of the blog's entries, the soldier said in a text message to his mother, Rose Anstett. The decision shocked Anstett. "That was my link to him ... They don't want to compromise the mission, which is understandable, but he was pretty careful about what he wrote." Yesterday, a military spokesman said he couldn't reveal the objection to Austin's blog or even confirm it was ordered removed. In general, the military has the right to remove any content that puts the safety of personnel or the mission at risk, said Capt. Doug MacNair of Canadian Expeditionary Force Command Headquarters. Austin, a University of Waterloo student, shipped off last week to Afghanistan, where he continued the blog he started during training in Petawawa. He called the blog Matt in Afghanistan: An undergrad's life in a very big desert. Austin is a sapper, the military term for an engineer private. Since arriving at the Kandahar air base Aug. 15, he had blogged daily. Because blogging is relatively new, McNair said, the Canadian Forces have no policy dealing with it. "We don't have a problem with blogs themselves and we don't have a problem with soldiers saying, `This is what my life is like in Afghanistan.' We only have a concern when they go a little too far."
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Don Quixote Note: IMAGES OF SOLDIER GOING TO Afghanistan can be found at http://www.therecord.com/gallery/matt/index.html
Matt's actual Blog at http://miafghanistan.blogspot.com/ is now devoid of postings.
1 comment:
Matt's Blog is once again up and posting :) Proud of him! He's an amazing writer, enthralling the reader and bringing the reader to by by his side during his mission, feeling the sweat and the sand, the ups and downs with him. You're right there with him.. with Matt.. in Afghanistan.
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