Credentials of Virginia Journalists Pulled (military says they violated ground rules)

Daily Sentinal ^ | 12/16/05

[Libloather]

Credentials of Va. Journalists Pulled

NORFOLK, Va. — The military this week revoked the press credentials of a Norfolk newspaper writer and photographer who were reporting from Kuwait, saying they had violated ground rules by photographing battle-damaged military vehicles.

Denis Finley, editor of The Virginian-Pilot, wrote a letter Friday protesting the Army's confiscation of the badges that allowed reporter Lou Hansen and photographer Hyunsoo Leo Kim to interview and photograph service members.

"Yes, they signed an agreement, but the Navy brought them to the site and allowed them to take pictures," Finley said in an article the paper published Friday. "The truth should always win out, and it did here."

The letter to Lt. Col. David C. Farlow, deputy director of public affairs for U.S. Central Command, seeks a written explanation of Army policy and a guarantee that journalists representing the paper be fully eligible for future "embed" privileges.

Hansen and Kim spent more than two weeks with the Navy in the Persian Gulf region, chronicling Navy and coalition units.

At an Army base in Kuwait, they were asked to sign a three-page list of rules, including 28 categories of information that could not be reported because doing so "could jeopardize operations and endanger lives."

Twelve additional items were prohibited from being photographed or filmed due to "operational security" requirements. The fifth item on that list specified, "No video/photography of battle-damaged vehicles."

Both men signed the agreement Dec. 6.

During the next two days, the pair visited Camp Arifjan in Kuwait with Navy public affairs officials. They were assigned military escorts who gave them a tour of several lots where battle-damaged vehicles were stored and showed them an area where vehicles from Iraq were cleaned, the newspaper said in its Friday story.

The pair said they asked the escorts if they could take photos and were told yes.

The newspaper published the story and photos Dec. 10 under the headline "Scouring the skeletons of war."

Army Lt. Col. Debbie Haston-Hilger sent an e-mail Monday to Hansen's editor from Camp Arifjan, saying a photo was "in violation of operational security and puts future troops in harm's way by showing the vulnerabilities of vehicles which the insurgents can use against them."

On Thursday, Haston-Hilger said the rule recently had been added to the policy of the Coalition Forces Land Component Command, which oversees the base in Kuwait.

Col. Barrett King, chief public affairs officer at Coalition Forces Land Component Commands headquarters in Atlanta, acknowledged that the policy is inconsistent with wider military regulations. He said he would revisit the policy.

Insurgents can use pictures of damaged vehicles to learn how to make bombs more powerful and effective, he said.

"In any other arena, any other time, it was a very good story and a very reasonable photo, but we're at war," he told the newspaper.

[WorkingClassFilth]

Good. Now to invoke the Sedition Act and begin incarcerating them or sentencing them to capital punishment.

[billhilly]

Scum who know the meaning of Ship Higher In Transit.

[Libloather]

A damaged Humvee from Iraq awaits sterilization at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait before being sent back to the U.S. Many of these military vehicles lack a seat, indicating a person was killed inside.

Senior Chief Petty Officer Michael Blank stands atop a light armored vehicle that was gutted by a rocket-propelled grenade, killing five Marines.

Chief Petty Officer Donald Hatch examines a light armored vehicle gutted by an explosion. Five Marines died in a blast hot enough to melt the vehicle’s interior.

This exploded ammunition shell was found inside a light armored vehicle gutted by a rocket-propelled grenade.

A civilian employee hoses down a battle-damaged Humvee during the sterilization process. The red dot on the windshield indicates that there was a casualty in the vehicle.

Chief Petty Officer Donald Hatch inspects the interior of a military truck after it has been sterilized so it can be sent back to the United States. Holes from insurgents’ bullets mar the windows.

Foreign workers and service members dressed in heavy waterproof gear hose down the machinery with power washers.

Sterilized military Humvees wait to be shipped back to the United States.

[WorkingClassFilth]

Thank you. Stern reality.

[No Longer Free State]

So after posting this article saying how damaging pictures can be, you post the pictures?

[mtntop3]

These "journalists" signed an explicit agreement - and then proceed to deliberately violate it.

They state they asked for permission in the field to photograph the damaged vehicles - and assert that it was (orally?) given to them - and that they then proceeded to do what they had explicitly agreed not to do in a signed agreement.

Their single purpose was not to photograph engineering curiosities - but to publish material which could obviously aid the enemy and also conceivably affect the morale of both our armed forces and the home front.

These parasitic, traitorous, voyeurs need to be in prison - or assigned to a front-line group that would exhibit them after they were "battle-damaged."

[SittinYonder]

It's reasonable to me that if you are asked not to photograph a vehicle because the photograph could help terrorists know how to better kill U.S. soldiers, then you should not photograph the vehicle.


It has nothing to do with "getting out the truth" as the newspaper suggests, and everything to do with the attitude that permeates the press: A self-righteous indignation that anyone who tells them not to do something is attempting to censor them.

These journalists need to get over themselves and stop trying be part of the story.

[Lion in Winter]

"Insurgents can use pictures of damaged vehicles to learn how to make bombs more powerful and effective, he said."

[Libloather]

So after posting this article saying how damaging pictures can be, you post the pictures?

They can be found online at The Virginian-Pilot, under the headline "Scouring the skeletons of war."

[No Longer Free State]

And your point in compounding this error by posting them again is...?