Good for them

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - 7:12 PM Share

The Federation of American Scientists generally advocates transparency in government, a policy with which I agree. They get a hold of many interesting military manuals, and some of those have been useful in my work. Tip for reporters: If you are going to hang with a tank unit, first read a manual on tanks.

But FAS know when to make a common sense exception, and did so recently after obtaining a military manual on sniper training. "For once, such restrictions [against dissemination] appear to make sense and the 474-page manual will not be posted on the Federation of American Scientists website," the group stated.

But FAS also offers a link to a shooters' forum in which discussants note that the manual often can be found in pawn shops around Ft. Bragg, N.C.

Larry W. Smith/Getty Images

EXPLORE:INTELLIGENCE, MILITARY

(2)

HIDE COMMENTS LOGIN OR REGISTER REPORT ABUSE

BLUE13326

2:47 PM ET

April 16, 2009

I didn't think you'd want me

I didn't think you'd want me to post the link, but I googled it, and there are torrents of that manual available at various sites like thepiratebay.

DJUHA

3:33 PM ET

April 16, 2009

Shouldn't the OPSEC people at

Shouldn't the OPSEC people at Ft. Bragg be keeping an eye on pawn shops? Glad congress went after military pay-day loans, though more needs to be done.