Arizona National Guard v. Clark [1]

Specialist Leonard A. Clark, a member of the Arizona National Guard serving in Iraq, was demoted to Private First Class for allegedly releasing classified information on his blog.  According to press accounts [2], Clark's blog was openly critical of the war in Iraq. The Army punished Clark after his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel James F. Switzer, found him guilty in a nonjudicial proceeding on July 19, 2005. Clark's blog and its host site, LeonardClark.com, are no longer active.

According to a U.S. Central Command press release [3], the charges and specifications against Clark included failure to obey an order or regulation under Article 92 [4] of the Uniform Code of Military Justice [5] by releasing information about the movements, tactics, and rules of engagement of U.S. troops, as well as information about improvised explosive attacks on U.S. convoys, thereby violating an order against releasing such information. Clark was also charged with reckless endangerment under Article 134 [6] for revealing this type of information and "encouraging its widespread publication," such that "with that information it was likely that the enemy forces could cause death or seriously bodily harm to U.S. forces."

Some military bloggers familiar with the content of Clark's blog posts doubted that the posts revealed any military secrets [7] or compromised the security of military operations. Others argued that Clark should have known that his posts were in a gray area and in any case were subject to Army approval.

Clark could have requested a court martial instead of a hearing before his commanding officer, but he declined to do so. According to the press release [3] [8], Lieutenant Colonel Switzer found Clark guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and sentenced him to a 1-grade reduction in rank, forfeiture of $820 pay per month for two months, 45 days of travel restriction, and 45 days of extra duty. The restriction and extra duty were suspended for 5 months.