Accusations against presidential candidate Obama could violate policy

[CommunityEditor]

An unknown number of Army civilian employees will be investigated in connection with the unlawful distribution of a chain e-mail that makes false accusations about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The e-mail appears to have originated at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and was sent out by civilian individuals to potentially thousands of people who work for Army Medical Command, including soldiers.

In response, the Army sent a memorandum Jan. 16 through the Medical Information Technology Center to an unspecified number of soldiers in Army Medical Command warning against using government computers to distribute the e-mail.

The email accuses Obama of concealing that he is a radical Muslim, that he disrespects the American flag and that he was sworn into office with his hand on the Koran.

In fact, according to multiple biographical Web sites, Obama is a practicing Christian and used a Bible when he was sworn in as a senator from Illinois in 2005. His mother is Ann Dunham, a native of Kansas, who married a Muslim she divorced three years later.

Obama’s mother remarried another Muslim, and the family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia. Obama met his biological father once.

The Army memorandum, which was first reported in the Boston Globe, stated: “Currently there is an e-mail floating around with the Subject line: ‘Who is Barack Obama.’ Like virtually all chain e-mails, this one is false.”

The investigation into the actions of the Army civilians will be conducted by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency that looks into allegations of illegal practices among federal employees and protects the merits of others, such as whistle-blowers.

“We are going to be opening cases,” said OSC spokesman Jim Mitchell, who could not speculate on the number of people who will be investigated because of the possibility that it may have been distributed to thousands of people. “My own feeling is that this is the tip of the iceberg.”

The e-mail thread obtained by Army Times shows that the message began to circulate outside the government and reached an AMEDD employee before going out to a wide distribution list in that department.

“New technologies make it easier for you to do stupid things on government time, on government computers by federal employees to other federal employees,” Mitchell said, explaining that the chain e-mail sent by civilians at AMEDD is a violation of the Hatch Act, which restricts partisan political activity of federal employees.

The Army posted a copy of the Hatch Act on Jan. 24 on its Army Knowledge Online Web site, even though soldiers are not subject to the rules and restrictions of the act.

However, uniformed service members are subject to a set rules governing political activity under a Defense Department policy that imposes many of the same types of restrictions.

One possible violation is the use of government computers for other than official business. Another is the rule against distributing political literature.

“Soldiers need to understand what’s authorized and what’s prohibited by our regulations for any kind of political activity,” Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Anne Edgecomb said. “It’s a soldier’s responbility.”

Army Secretary Pete Geren issued his own “Election Year Guidance for 2008” on Jan. 22 which urges soldiers to be aware of and comply with policies governing the use of facilities for political events and participation of Army personnel in political activities.


Article: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/0...email_080204w/

[technomage1]

This is so sad. It should make no difference if Obama was a Muslim or not.

This is crap. I got this email from someone (not on an Army computer) and took the time to look it up on Snopes (ironically, that false email claimed it had been validated on Snopes!), because it didn't seem right to me: but that is not the point. The point is that it is just an email bouncing around... am I supposed to be responsible for the absolute truthfulness of every email that comes into or leaves my computer? How can I be? What if one says Sen. Clinton is "against business"? or one says Sen. McCain "went to a Baptist pre-school" when he was a kid? How do I know if it is true or not? Yes, civilian employees should not use computers for politics. But are we going to hunt down everyone who sent an email that isn't completly "true"?

I too think that this hardly should warrant any investigation.

These things bounce around in cyberspace all the time. If the military wants their systems to be used at all they should not be on a witch hunt every time something like this occurs.

I too received this email. As I am a member of the National Guard and it is mandatory to have an AKO account and I happen to be a commander as well, this is my primary account because of all of the emails I receive that are military related. On top of all the other restrictions that are placed in the system this takes that cake.

I forwarded it to a bunch of my contacts stating that if it was true it is sad, it is up to the individual if the message contained really matters to them or not.

I was not aware of the Hatch amendment or probably the other one thousand amendments or rules that I am held to. Sad that it comes to this.

one way to control the First Amendment is to own and control the medium that is used to communicate.

crazy......

[technomage1]

You know, I acutally have to come down on the Army's side on this one. It may seem pointless, and if anyone just recieved an email and the deleted it, it would be. The problem was with people forwarding it. I don't know how the Army does it's training, but in the AF every person, military, US, and local national civilian that touches a computer, are trained in computer security every year, and this is always one of the highlight items of things not to do.

Our computer systems are so important to our day to day ops that we classify them as a weapons system. Just like you (hopefully) wouldn't abuse your M-16, you don't abuse your computer. In this case, the email contained nothing but hateful words, but what if it had contained a new virus? You could have been spreading it.

Now, I don't think people should lose their jobs over this, but I do think some counseling and refresher training is needed for those that violated policy and forwarded the email. You screwed up, admit your mistake, learn from it, and move on.