i told you !!!!! people tell everything on facebook

(March 4) -- Last week, the U.S. military announced it would start allowing troops in the field to use social networking services like Twitter. But the latest demonstration of how such sites can blast confidential information into the public sphere came on Wednesday, when the Israeli army announced it had booted out a soldier who revealed details of an upcoming raid on Facebook.

The soldier, from an elite unit of the Artillery Corps, announced on his Facebook page that, "On Wednesday, we are cleaning out [a West Bank village] -- today an arrest operation, tomorrow an arrest operation and then, please God, home by Thursday."

Other members of the unit, who were also his Facebook friends (but might not be anymore), saw the leak and alerted officers. They scrapped the operation out of fear that Web-savvy enemies might have seen the post. The soldier was court-martialed, sentenced to 10 days in jail and kicked out of the battalion.

Israeli forces have now promised to crack down on use of social media sites, and launched a campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of sharing secrets online. "Uploading classified information to social networks or any Web site exposes the information to anyone who wishes to view it, including foreign and hostile intelligence services," the military said in a statement. "Hostile intelligence agents scan the Internet with an eye toward collecting information on the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), which may undermine operational success and imperil IDF forces."

The soldier is just the latest in a long line of hapless Web users who've committed costly Facebook faux pas or acted like twerps on Twitter. Here's a rundown of six of the greatest social media screw-ups:

THE SPY BOSS: Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (also known as MI6) traditionally keeps schtum about its operatives' identities. So British newspapers were outraged last summer when the wife of spy chief Sir John Sawers posted pictures of her husband, their children and chums on Facebook. The biggest state secrets revealed online? Sawers enjoys a game of beach Frisbee and wears blue Speedos.