Military tightens media rules

WASHINGTON — Less than two weeks after a four-star general was relieved of command for comments made to Rolling Stone magazine, Defense Secretary Robert Gates issued orders Friday tightening the reins on officials dealing with the news media.

The order, effective immediately, requires top-level Pentagon and military leaders to notify the office of the Defense Department's assistant secretary for public affairs "prior to interviews or any other means of media and public engagement with possible national or international implications."

Just as the removal of Gen. Stanley McChrystal from command in Afghanistan was viewed as President Obama's reassertion of civilian control of the military, so Gates' memo on "Interaction With the Media" was viewed as a reassertion by civilian public-affairs specialists of control over the military's contacts with the news media.

Senior officials involved in preparing the memo said work on it had begun well before the uproar that followed Rolling Stone's profile of McChrystal.

But they acknowledged that the controversy, and the firing of one of the military's most influential commanders, served to emphasize Gates' determination to add more discipline to the Defense Department's interactions with the media.

In the memo, which was sent to senior Pentagon civilian officials, the nation's top military officer, each of the armed-services secretaries and the commanders of the regional war-fighting headquarters, Gates said, "I am concerned that the department has grown lax in how we engage with the media, often in contravention of established rules and procedures."

The memo by Gates, a former CIA director, also demanded greater adherence to secrecy standards, issuing a warning against the release of classified information: "Leaking of classified information is against the law, cannot be tolerated and will, when proven, lead to the prosecution of those found to be engaged in such activity."

A copy of the unclassified memo by Gates was provided by an official who was not authorized to release it. Douglas Wilson, the new assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, and Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, verified its content.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was consulted during the drafting of the memo and "fully supports the secretary's intent," said Capt. John Kirby, Mullen's spokesman.

McChrystal stunned his bosses with criticism and complaints in the Rolling Stone article that his superiors did not know was coming. In the article, he and some of his aides were quoted criticizing Obama's war effort; McChrystal complained that he was backed into "an unsellable position" during last fall's long White House deliberations on whether to add more troops.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.