What is a cached web service?

U.S. military officials attempted to scrub the web of info reg. Bales the soldier accused of killing civilians. What do you think of this?

• http://www.military.com/news/article/army-tried-to-delete-bales-from-web-after-arrest.html?comp=700001075741&rank=2 WASHINGTON -- Besides waiting nearly a week before identifying the Army staff sergeant accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers, the U.S. military scrubbed its websites of references to his combat service. Gone were photographs of the suspect, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, as well as a recounting in his base's newspaper of a 2007 battle in Iraq involving his unit, a report that quoted him extensively. But they weren't really gone. Given the myriad ways that information remains accessible on the Internet, despite the best efforts to remove it, the material about Bales was still out there and available, such as in cached versions of Web pages. Within minutes of the Pentagon leaking his name Friday evening, news organizations and others found and published his pictures, the account of the battle - which depicts Bales and other soldiers in a glowing light - and excerpts from his wife's personal blog. So why did the Pentagon try to scrub Bales from the Internet in the first place?

• Answer:

  I can think of a lot of reasons, starting with protecting Bales and his family and friends from reprisals in the interim while awaiting his trial. Regardless of how we, or anybody else, may feel about him and what he's accused of doing, our laws demand that he be placed on trial for those actions. This does not mean he's to be subjected to some kind of "lynching" action, nor does it mean that his family and friends should be made to pay for his actions.