Good for them
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 ...
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
Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1
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