I know that a lot of my readers have .gov and .mil addresses, which means that I need to take special care about how I treat classified material on this website.
I’ve spent a few days talking to people, and there are no easy answers. Each element of the government seems to have its own policies, which are evolving over time.
Until further notice, I am adopting the following policy when it comes to treating classified material, particularly that released by Wikileaks. (I have updated previous posts to conform with this policy.)
1. Under no circumstance will I post quotations that include security markings. I may quote from documents, but I won’t put anyone in the position of having a scarlet S or the dreaded NOFORN appear on their screen and, as a result, in their cache.
2. Under no circumstance will I post either the full-text of a cable or even consecutive paragraphs. In fact, I doubt that I will ever post the entirety of a paragraph. Any material taken from the cables will appear as it might in the New York Times or Washington Post.
3. I will do my best to enforce this policy on reader comments.
I hope that this satisfies the majority of readers with day jobs. In any event, I invite readers to comment on the new policy and am prepared to modify it if and when circumstances dictate.