The U.S. Navy has confirmed officials made a deliberate decision to block WorldNetDaily's news from computers on Navy and Marine bases nationwide, but in a prepared statement said it had nothing to do with the "content" or "views" of the Web's leading independent news site.
The military investigation was launched a week ago after WND requested an explanation of the blocking, and the announcement came from the base at Quantico, Va., where the Navy Marine Corps Intranet is managed.
From there, Capt. Teresa Ovalle was asked if there had been a decision to block the site. "Yes," she said, even though she didn't have access to those who made the decision, or a time frame for when that happened. And she said it was an issue of security on the WND server.
"WND is hosted by one of the largest and most secure server farms in America – the Planet in Dallas. If the Navy is suggesting there is something wrong with our hosting facility, then it should be able to show the public that all websites using that facility are being treated the same. I don't think the Navy is prepared to do that," said Joseph Farah, founder, editor and CEO of WND.
"While I was optimistic we would be able to resolve this censorship by the Navy amicably and quickly, it appears that is not the case," Farah said. "It appears we will be forced to litigate this blatant First Amendment violation and seek compensatory damages from the taxpayers of the United States. That is very sad indeed. But WND has proved its willingness to fight for freedom of speech in the past and we will uphold that tradition in the future no matter what the cost. I now urge every concerned American to protest this unprecedented and unwarranted muzzling of WND by the Department of Defense and the government of the United States."
WND readers have told the news site that the blocking problem might date back as long as four years.
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