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Critics Spank Congressman For Twittering From BaghdadCritics Spank Congressman For Twittering From Baghdad
Pete Hokestra did what a lot of people do. While traveling overseas, he posted regular updates to Twitter, to keep the folks at home informed. But Hoekstra isn't just any Twitterer: He's a congressman, his trip was a congressional delegation to Iraq, and now he's taking heat for possibly violating security protocols and endangering everyone he was traveling with.
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Pete Hokestra did what a lot of people do. While traveling overseas, he posted regular updates to Twitter, to keep the folks at home informed. But Hoekstra isn't just any Twitterer: He's a congressman, his trip was a congressional delegation to Iraq, and now he's taking heat for possibly violating security protocols and endangering everyone he was traveling with.Hoekstra, R-Mich., a ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, first Twittered from Iraq on Feb. 5. "Just landed in Baghdad. I believe it may be first time I've had bb service in Iraq. 11th trip here." He posts a half-dozen more tweets over the next four days, describing moving into the Green Zone by helicopter, discussing some of the issues and strategies in the region, and announcing his return home on Feb. 9.
He looks like a pretty regular Twitterer. He even takes the time to toss some snark at the Twitter Grammar Police: "Love twitter critics.Spelling mistakes. Sorry but riding in poor light, bouncing around,speed not accuracy. Lighten up. Its called twitter"
CBS News explains the problem::
The troublesome twittering occured last week during a Middle East trip led by House Minority Leader John Boehner. The delegation had been the subject of a media embargo -- although many news outlets were aware of the trip, it was kept under wraps due to obvious safety concerns. Such apprehensions were evidently not obvious to Hoekstra, however, who used his BlackBerry to give blog subscribers a play-by-play account of the group's arrival in the region.
The New York Times reported:
Both the House Armed Services Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence discourage members of Congress visiting dangerous areas from giving interviews or publicly discussing the details of their itinerary while traveling, though there are no House-wide guidelines in place, according to committee officials.
"Generally speaking, we encourage the members to hold off on any communication until they are wheels down at Andrews Air Force Base," said Courtney Littig, the spokeswoman for Democrats on the Intelligence Committee. Disclosing the movements of a high-profile delegation, she said, not only put at risk the safety of the members but also the military escorts who accompany them.
But Jamal Ware, a spokesman for Intelligence Committee Republicans, said that Mr. Hoekstra's actions were "not unprecedented nor unheard of," pointing out that other members of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, conducted interviews and held press conferences on trips to Iraq.
CBSNews expands on Ware's statement:
Hoekstra's office said the congressman was only trying to keep his digitally-savvy constituents well-informed and that he was well aware of any inherent safety risks.
"As the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Hoekstra is fully aware of security issues when traveling abroad. He believes in giving people in West Michigan as much access as possible, and posting on Twitter allows him to provide real-time insight into the sights and sounds of his congressional activities," his office said in a statement to Politico.
Hoekstra said what he did was nothing unusual, there are no rules prohibiting it, and Democrats have done the equivalent over the years: "President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Secretary Clinton, and even Chairman Reyes are among the many Democrats who have announced their travel to Iraq or other sensitive destinations before arrival or while in country."
But Hoekstra's defense held no water with the political blog Firedoglake, which took advantage of the gaffe to rant about Republicans using Web 2.0: "If there's one thing the past week has taught us, it's that Republican politicians can't be trusted to use Twitter without posing a danger to themselves or to others. First Pete Hoekstra used it to violate all known security protocols by repeatedly broadcasting his whereabouts in Iraq, and then Virginia's GOP Chair used it to sabotage his own party's attempt to seize control of the state Senate."
The Pentagon, meanwhile, says it's taking another look at its policies of keeping the movements of congressional delegations secret, and how those policies should apply to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Time to update the old World War II security slogan, "Loose lips sink ships." How about, "Loose tweets sink fleets"?
Rep. Hoekstra probably shouldn't have done what he did, but it really isn't a big deal. In the midst of the latest news of global meltdowns, it's a nice change of pace to get distracted by a great deal of political noise and controversy over nothing much. Reminds me of the good old days of the go-go '90s -- anybody caught canoodling with any interns lately?
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