{"id":50952,"date":"2003-03-13T13:26:50","date_gmt":"2003-03-13T13:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.soulhuntre.com\/items\/date\/2003\/03\/13\/you-might-be-a-target-if\/"},"modified":"2003-03-13T13:26:50","modified_gmt":"2003-03-13T13:26:50","slug":"you-might-be-a-target-if-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/legacyiamsenseiken.local\/2003\/03\/13\/you-might-be-a-target-if-2\/","title":{"rendered":"You might be a target if\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<table border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" bgcolor=\"#000000\">\n<tr>\n<td align=\"center\" valign=\"middle\">\n<a href=\"\/archives\/media\/kate_adie_38653149_adie238.ascx\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/archives\/media\/kate_adie_38653149_adie238-thumb.jpg\" width=\"125\" height=\"93\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"20\" align=\"center\" valign=\"middle\">Kate Adie<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>Let&#8217;s take a moment to talk about &quot;the war&quot;&#8230; or rather, the fairly odd<br \/>\npanic sweeping the nation in the wake of the coming conflict. Now,<br \/>\n<a title=\"Cartooning for peace!\" href=\"\/archives\/001264.ascx\">we have talked a little bit about this before<\/a> so I won&#8217;t spend too much time<br \/>\ncovering the old ground. I have found it fairly interesting to see the various<br \/>\nattempts to dissuade us&#8230; but that&#8217;s a different rant.<\/p>\n<p>I was however amused by a public radio broadcast I heard yesterday that claimed:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>[[wp:Iraq]] doesn&#8217;t have weapons of mass destruction<\/li>\n<li>If we attack, [[e2:Iraq]] will be forced to attack us with weapons of mass<br \/>\n  destruction<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Meanwhile, a trusted source who has spoken personally with a weapons<br \/>\ninspector in Iraq has told me that the average Iraqi is really looking forward<br \/>\nto us clearing out the current dictatorship.<\/p>\n<p>While we are here, go ahead and take a look at the &quot;<a title=\"Boycott Brand America\" href=\"http:\/\/www.adbusters.org\/campaigns\/boycott_america\/\">Boycott<br \/>\nBrand America<\/a>&quot; silliness. We&#8217;ll talk about it later but<br \/>\n<a title=\"Those pinko scum cheese-munching surrender monkeys over at the ever-excellent...\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24251\"><br \/>\nhere&#8217;s the MeFi thread<\/a> for now.<\/p>\n<p>Ok&#8230; the purpose of this post is to respond to some pretty weird [[e2:spin]]<br \/>\nbeing put onto a fairly straightforward incident.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/onthisday\/hi\/correspondents\/newsid_2625000\/2625875.stm\"><br \/>\nK<\/a><a title=\"Kate Adie\" href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/onthisday\/hi\/correspondents\/newsid_2625000\/2625875.stm\">ate<br \/>\nAdie<\/a> was told by the [[wp:Pentagon]] that unknown and unauthorized<br \/>\ntransmissions from inside enemy territory during a war might become targeted as<br \/>\nenemy broadcasts.<\/p>\n<p>A completely reasonable concept (see below). Of course, because she is just<br \/>\nchomping at the bit for some publicity and also pretty much our of her mind with<br \/>\nanti-us sentiment at the moment this somehow turned into the US <i>threatening<br \/>\nto deliberately murder independent journalists<\/i>. This<br \/>\n<a title=\"RealAudio, 49 minutes into the broadcast.\" href=\"http:\/\/wwa.rte.ie\/rams\/radio\/sundayshow.ram\"><br \/>\naccusation was made in a radio broadcast<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Right. It also doesn&#8217;t help for her to get her name in all the headlines now<br \/>\nthat she has recently<br \/>\n<a title=\"launcing a new career...\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ananova.com\/entertainment\/story\/sm_744918.html\"><br \/>\ngiven up 150,000 pounds a year from the BBC<\/a> in order to become independent.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, there is a huge thread happening<br \/>\n<a title=\"Pentagon threatens to target journalists in Iraq.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238\"><br \/>\nover at MetaFilter about this whole thing<\/a>. I have included my two [<a title=\"post 1...\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#453980\">1<\/a>][<a title=\"post 2...\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#454107\">2<\/a>][<a title=\"post 3\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#454186\">3<\/a>] (so far)<br \/>\nposts on the topic below for archival purposes and so you don&#8217;t need to go all<br \/>\nthe way over there if you don&#8217;t want. They have been formatted a little better<br \/>\nhere.\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There also a post on this<br \/>\n<a title=\"Relative Path\" href=\"http:\/\/www.relativepath.org\/blog\/archives\/000040.html\"><br \/>\nhere<\/a><\/li>\n<li>\n  <a title=\"Kate Adie Syndrome\" href=\"http:\/\/www.chthonic.f9.co.uk\/images\/adie\/\"><br \/>\n  Kate Adie Syndrome<\/a><\/li>\n<li>\n  <a href=\"http:\/\/media.guardian.co.uk\/broadcast\/comment\/0,7493,887706,00.html\"><br \/>\n  In the shadow of Kate Adie<\/a><\/li>\n<li>The<br \/>\n  <a title=\"PENTAGON THREATENS...\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gulufuture.com\/news\/kate_adie030310.htm\"><br \/>\n  relevant transcript section<\/a> (also copied below)<\/li>\n<li>Streaming 26 minute<br \/>\n  <a title=\"26 minutes...\" href=\"43&quot;\"><br \/>\n  segment<\/a>, and the<br \/>\n  <a title=\"3 minutes...\" href=\"28&quot;\"><br \/>\n  relevant 3 minutes<\/a> or<br \/>\n  <a title=\"The whole thing...\" href=\"http:\/\/wwa.rte.ie\/rams\/radio\/sundayshow.ram\"><br \/>\n  download the show<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Enjoy&#8230; and remember to look below.<\/p>\n<p><i>ed note: I put up<br \/>\n<a title=\"post 3\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#454186\"><br \/>\nanother post<\/a>, and<br \/>\n<a title=\"post 4\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#454584\"><br \/>\nanother<\/a>, and<br \/>\n<a title=\"post 5\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#454610\"><br \/>\nanother<\/a>. Oh hell&#8230; just keep checking<br \/>\n<a title=\"the meFi thread...\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238\"><br \/>\nthe thread<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h1>posted by<br \/>\n<a title=\"My Mefi profile...\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/user.mefi\/7947\">soulhuntre<\/a> at<br \/>\n<a title=\"my first post...\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#453980\">8:35 AM<\/a> PST on March 13<\/h1>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Absolutely amazing.<\/p>\n<p>This is exactly what is wrong with the &quot;peace&quot; movement at the moment&#8230; This<br \/>\nsort of instant ability to get all bent out of shape no matter what the<br \/>\nprovocation without any actual understanding &#8211; or attempted understanding &#8211; of<br \/>\nthe issues.<\/p>\n<p><u><b>Lets be absolutely clear on what is the situation<\/b><\/u>:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>There is every reason for military force to be used in a war zone to<br \/>\n  prevent communications that may be of value to the enemy. This is a<br \/>\n  fundamental reality of war.<\/li>\n<li>It is the nature of conflict that battlefield decisions need to happen<br \/>\n  extremely rapidly&#8230; The amount of time available for deep signal analysis is<br \/>\n  extremely limited in many situations.<\/li>\n<li>There is no instantaneous way to differentiate an unknown satellite phone<br \/>\n  transmission from a reporter from one used by the enemy without significant<br \/>\n  prior information from the reporter. Hence the idea of &quot;registering&quot; that<br \/>\n  phone. Commercial satellite phone often contain at least minimal encryption<br \/>\n  that prevents the content of the transmission from being subject to fast<br \/>\n  analysis. Remember, current encryption technology, even On the consumer level,<br \/>\n  is VASTLY in favor of the encryption. <\/li>\n<li>It then follows that without significant prior knowledge it is extremely<br \/>\n  reasonable to target those transmissions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>This is not an attempt to &quot;murder&quot; an independent journalist. It is a simple<br \/>\nand practical reality of the modern battlefield. If you make a deliberate choice<br \/>\nto act in a manner indistinguishable from a military target then you take your<br \/>\nchances.<\/p>\n<p>Personally? I am impressed that they are bothering with a &quot;registration&quot;<br \/>\noption and even attempting to make a decision before targeting a transmission<br \/>\nfrom inside a war zone with regards to a sat phone.<\/p>\n<p>But hey &#8211; don&#8217;t let facts get in the way &#8230; &quot;viva la revolucion!&quot;<\/p>\n<p>While we are discussion battlefield realities&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><i><b>&quot;If your camera pokes out from behind that wall one more time, I can&#8217;t<br \/>\nguarantee I won&#8217;t shoot it.&quot;<br \/>\n<\/b>what about even that statemnt is not bullshit? &#8211; quoted from<br \/>\n<a title=\"what about even that statemnt is not bullshit?\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#453743\"><br \/>\nthis post<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<p>All of it. The statement makes absolutely perfect sense&#8230; but to be more<br \/>\naccurate with the situation it would be&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;If your camera pokes out from behind that wall one more time, I can&#8217;t<br \/>\nguarantee someone won&#8217;t shoot it.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Do you have any idea what kind of reaction times are needed to survive and<br \/>\nachieve victory on a modern battlefield? What you are in effect asking for is<br \/>\nsomeone to discern between a toy gun and a real one in a gunfight &#8211; or a rubber<br \/>\nknife during hand to hand conflict. While you MIGHT manage it you will<br \/>\neventually get someone who makes a mistake.<\/p>\n<p>Your there with your squad, locking down the street into the haze and smoke &#8211;<br \/>\ngunfire is impacting all around you and more is coming all the time. You have<br \/>\nfraction of a second to aim at a target and make a decision whether or not to<br \/>\nfire. <\/p>\n<p>That decision by the way has almost nothing to do with determining the<br \/>\nidentity of your target. There is little time&#8230; You simplify that process<br \/>\nextremely&#8230; Uniform recognition and dividing your area into zones. If no one<br \/>\nfrom your &quot;side&quot; is in a zone (sector) then you pretty much drop all the<br \/>\nrecognition time and simply make tactical decisions. If the zone is potentially<br \/>\nfilled with &quot;friendlies&quot; you take more time&#8230; How much depends on many factors.<\/p>\n<p>It is not possible to make an entire war zone subject to the time consuming<br \/>\nprocess of human vision based IFF and succeed\/survive.<\/p>\n<p>So&#8230; down the block you see something longish and black stick out from<br \/>\nbehind a wall&#8230; you possibly even see the glint of glass at the front&#8230; it is<br \/>\nhard to see exactly what it is&#8230; then it&#8217;s gone. More gunfire and it&#8217;s back&#8230;<br \/>\nyou take the shot.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Was it a cameraman? No. It was a soldier with a thermal or IR scope,<br \/>\n  calling in information to his unit about your locations as the optics cut<br \/>\n  through the smoke.<\/li>\n<li>Was it a cameraman? No. It was a soldier with a laser designation pack,<br \/>\n  painting your position for the ordinance on it&#8217;s way from a distant airplane<br \/>\n  or artillery system. And yes, designation lasers can operate in places that<br \/>\n  are visually impaired by smoke.<\/li>\n<li>Was it a cameraman? No. It was a soldier with a large caliber sniper<br \/>\n  rifle. You didn&#8217;t see the barrel because it is comparatively thin&#8230; the large<br \/>\n  IR\/thermal site has been allowing him to pick off your squad.<\/li>\n<li>Was it a cameraman? No. It was a soldier with a hand held rocket launcher.<br \/>\n  He is about to blow away the wall you are behind, killing you and several of<br \/>\n  your squad or possibly the 4 men in the tank to your rear. Or maybe the<br \/>\n  helicopter you can hear behind you.<\/li>\n<li>Was it a cameraman? Yes. He wasn&#8217;t anyplace you knew he would be &#8230; and<br \/>\n  &quot;they could be anywhere&quot; isn&#8217;t an option. On the off chance he was killed then<br \/>\n  it is a tragic accident&#8230; but one of those things that can happen when you<br \/>\n  run around a battlefield pointing things at men with guns.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h1>posted by<br \/>\n<a title=\"My Mefi user profile...\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/user.mefi\/7947\">soulhuntre<\/a> at<br \/>\n<a title=\"my second post...\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#454107\">10:33 AM<\/a> PST on March 13<\/h1>\n<blockquote>\n<p>This is a peace movement issue because it is being used by all the usual<br \/>\n  people to try and push some bizarre point about a conspiracy in the Bush<br \/>\n  administration. It is being used as &quot;peace&quot; propaganda&#8230; exactly the way the<br \/>\n  originator intended it to be.<\/p>\n<p><i>&quot;Is this a new development or something that has been done in the past?<br \/>\n  Is it standard practice to target media transmissions (not cameramen) coming<br \/>\n  out of a war zone?&quot; &#8211; quoted from<br \/>\n  <a title=\"soulhuntre, you speak of situations that involve quick thinking in the battlefield...\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#454021\"><br \/>\n  this post<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Semi sorta \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>It has always been a common thing to use broadcast signal tracking to<br \/>\n  target enemy command and control position or individual units. This has<br \/>\n  occasionally led to friendly fire or misidentification in a battlefield<br \/>\n  environment.<\/p>\n<p>However, a few things have changed that increase the danger significantly<br \/>\n  for journalists and complicate the problem for those making the decisions.<\/p>\n<p>In the past, one could simply listen in to make a decision on the nature of<br \/>\n  the broadcast&#8230; while military broadcasts did come in &quot;code&quot; the code itself<br \/>\n  was easily distinguished (usually) from normal communication. It was<br \/>\n  relatively simple to determine the military or civilian nature of the<br \/>\n  broadcast&#8230; both were using clear channel voice or morse code.<\/p>\n<p>Later, when military transmission became more sophisticated they began<br \/>\n  using dramatically different and better technology than an small news team<br \/>\n  could carry and use. So while the details were scarce on the content, the very<br \/>\n  nature of the broadcast helped to make the distinguishing features noticeable.<br \/>\n  A &quot;simple&quot; broadcast may well be a friendly journalist whereas a burst<br \/>\n  transmission frequency hopping one was almost certainly not.<\/p>\n<p>Now however civilian technology has gotten so good that it is once again<br \/>\n  usable for military purposes&#8230; so the transmission looks a lot like a<br \/>\n  military broadcast (unavoidable as military forces begin to use off the shelf<br \/>\n  civilian equipment, sometimes for exactly the purpose of causing confusion).<br \/>\n  The broadcasts have global reach, are digital and encrypted by nature. It is<br \/>\n  no longer possible to distinguish a military and civilian broadcast from these<br \/>\n  characteristics.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, there has also always been the very real risk of a journalist<br \/>\n  broadcasting something that may well compromise operational security &#8211; and<br \/>\n  there are very good reasons to prevent that as well. <\/p>\n<p>Given the response time and reach of modern battle field weapons,<br \/>\n  especially in a war where there are possible chemical, bio or nuke weapons<br \/>\n  deployed means that a real time video feed of a battle or sufficiently<br \/>\n  accurate voice feed broadcast to the global news as simple reporting may<br \/>\n  provide enough information for a significant strike.<\/p>\n<p>In a perfect world, where we could distinguish civilian and military<br \/>\n  communications with great accuracy we may well be willing to take risk<br \/>\n  involved in waiting to see if a particular news report was a specific danger<br \/>\n  to our troops. <\/p>\n<p>In a world where such identification is impossible it is necessary to treat<br \/>\n  every broadcast you don&#8217;t know for a fact is friendly as a potentially deadly<br \/>\n  weapon &#8211; and you need to move to shut it down.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h1>posted by<br \/>\n  <a title=\"my mefi profile...\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/user.mefi\/7947\">soulhuntre<\/a> at<br \/>\n  <a title=\"post 3\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#454186\">11:53 AM<\/a> PST on March 13<\/h1>\n<blockquote>\n<p><i>&quot;you justify threatening to shoot someone by giving an example of a<br \/>\n  situation in which it is not known who the person is. That set of<br \/>\n  circumstances would seem to preclude the person being told &quot;take my picture<br \/>\n  and i&#8217;ll kill you&quot;. but that is nitpicking, no.&quot; &#8211;<br \/>\n  <a title=\"for those of you that talk about the &quot;bizarre conspiracy&quot;...\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#454144\"><br \/>\n  quoted post<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Actually the only &quot;threats&quot; made have been very general&#8230; that if you insist<br \/>\n  on acting in ways that look like a threat in a war zone you may get shot at.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s as far as it went.<\/p>\n<p>\n  <i>&quot;for those of you that talk about the &quot;bizarre conspiracy&quot; that we psychos<br \/>\n  worry about, do you honestly see nothing to be alarmed about, not just here,<br \/>\n  but in general: given fliescher&#8217;s statements, the military&#8217;s threats to<br \/>\n  reporters, and the constant repetition of &quot;you must be aggin us&quot;.&quot;<br \/>\n  &#8211;<br \/>\n  <a title=\"for those of you that talk about the &quot;bizarre conspiracy&quot;...\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#454144\"><br \/>\n  quoted post<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Of course there are things to be alarmed about. I am extremely concerned about<br \/>\n  much of the &quot;Patriot Act&quot; for instance. I have no inherent trust of the<br \/>\n  government and I am sure that things are being spun.<\/p>\n<p>The difference is that I see it on both sides. And at the moment, there is a<br \/>\n  whole lotta BS being spouted in the name of &quot;peace&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>I also happen to think this war is a good idea&#8230; that doesn&#8217;t make me an<br \/>\n  unthinking sheep. <\/p>\n<p>\n  <i>&quot;if you trust those who stand to benefit most from a given situation to<br \/>\n  honestly report the goings-on therein&quot; &#8211;<br \/>\n  <a title=\"for those of you that talk about the &quot;bizarre conspiracy&quot;...\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#454144\"><br \/>\n  quoted post<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<p>And if you think individual reporters like Kate don&#8217;t have a lot to gain from<br \/>\n  spinning stories and\/or have a personal agenda then your very confused.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h1>posted by<br \/>\n  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/user.mefi\/7947\" title=\"my Mefi profile\"><br \/>\n  soulhuntre<\/a> at<br \/>\n  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#454584\" title=\"post 4\"><br \/>\n  9:51 PM<\/a> PST on March 13<\/h1>\n<blockquote>\n<p><i>&quot;Certainly journalists take risks; many will probably even brave the<br \/>\n  Iraqi war zone with this threat hanging over them. But the fact is that this<br \/>\n  Pentagon&#8217;s &quot;cold pronouncement&quot; probably amounts to a death sentence for most<br \/>\n  who dare to make such important, independent broadcasts.&quot; &#8211;<br \/>\n  <a title=\"Your argument is just another example of security being used as an excuse to trump the more fundamental tenets of our society.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#454218\"><br \/>\n  quoted post<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<p>If it is a death sentence then it is one of their own choosing. In the modern<br \/>\n  battlefield sending out a digital satellite transmission that looks<br \/>\n  significantly liege command and control signals is the equivalent of dressing<br \/>\n  up like one of the enemy and running around shooting blanks from a replica<br \/>\n  gun.<\/p>\n<p>Your going to get shot at &#8211; because you are acting EXACTLY like a target.<\/p>\n<p>If Kate wants to send out her reports in a manner that is significantly less<br \/>\n  risky she can use straight up analog voice radio in shortwave. The odds are<br \/>\n  much less that she would be fired upon &#8211; though by no means is that assured.<\/p>\n<p><i>&quot;It&#8217;s about accountability. Under the guise of protecting journalists,<br \/>\n  the Pentagon is instead making sure they are afraid to to their jobs. Shame!&quot;<br \/>\n  &#8211;<br \/>\n  <a title=\"what is the military doing dictating terms to journalists at all?\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#454266\"><br \/>\n  quoted post<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s about advising them of exactly what the risks are.<\/p>\n<p>What is the solution as some of you see it? Ignore the signals and let an air<br \/>\n  strike wipe out a unit or two of troops? I am sure that would look great on<br \/>\n  film. How about let the enemy broadcast with impunity and sacrifice a few<br \/>\n  thousand American lives? That good?<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t buy it. If there was a reliable way to determine reporter from foe (I<br \/>\n  won&#8217;t use the term friend) I might advocate it &#8211; freedom of the press IS<br \/>\n  important to me &#8211; depending on exactly how much it effected our tactical<br \/>\n  decision making ability, and how many troops were put at risk.<\/p>\n<p>A delay of seconds? No problem. Minutes? Maybe, depending on the exact<br \/>\n  battlefield circumstance. But a commercially encrypted satphone? Weeks<br \/>\n  wouldn&#8217;t do it .. or months. You just wouldn&#8217;t ever know.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h1>posted by<br \/>\n  <a title=\"my mefi profile\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/user.mefi\/7947\">soulhuntre<\/a> at<br \/>\n  <a title=\"post 5\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#454610\">12:18 AM<\/a> PST on March 14<\/h1>\n<blockquote>\n<p><i>&quot;I&#8217;m not being an absolutist about this. I&#8217;m very interested, for<br \/>\n  instance, in whether not attempting to discriminate between any broadcast<br \/>\n  signals is SOP, and if so exactly why and for how long. I haven&#8217;t had much<br \/>\n  luck finding hard data. Sorry&#8211;can&#8217;t take your word for it.&quot; &#8211;<br \/>\n  <a title=\"Because we're the fscking United States of America, that's why.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#454598\"><br \/>\n  quoted post<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<p>And I&#8217;m not asking for you to&#8230; by all means do your own research. I am just<br \/>\n  telling you what the problems and options are &#8211; I don&#8217;t claim to speak for<br \/>\n  current policy.<\/p>\n<p>I do know that during my training in tanks we were specifically taught to<br \/>\n  attack anything that looked like an antenna or broadcast point that we could<br \/>\n  not definitively identify as civilian.<\/p>\n<p>In other words we might not put a shell into a building marked &quot;WXYZ Radio&quot;<br \/>\n  but we would certainly engage or call in strikes onto a whip antenna sticking<br \/>\n  up over a hill.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s just life on a battlefield.<\/p>\n<p>\n  <i>&quot;Else what are we fighting for?&quot; &#8211;<br \/>\n  <a title=\"Because we're the fscking United States of America, that's why.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/mefi\/24238#454598\"><br \/>\n  quoted post<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Certainly the fate of an entire military mission is not to be put in jeopardy<br \/>\n  so a lone journalist &#8211; who has refused to co-operate on even the most basic<br \/>\n  level in helping us try not to shoot her &#8211; can run around anywhere she wants<br \/>\n  in a war zone and act like a target.<\/p>\n<p>Freedom of the press does NOT mean that it is the job of every other US<br \/>\n  citizen (soldier or not) to get killed so some reporter can walk through the<br \/>\n  world in a special charmed universe free from consequence and danger.<\/p>\n<p>She wants to report from a war zone? Go ahead.<\/p>\n<p>She wants to use equipment that looks like a military broadcast? Go for it.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s freedom.<\/p>\n<p>Doing those things and expecting everyone else to cover your ass and risk<br \/>\n  their own so you can do it? Hell no.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h1>From the horses mouth&#8230;<\/h1>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Go check out the<br \/>\n  <a title=\"The whole thing...\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gulufuture.com\/news\/kate_adie030310.htm\"><br \/>\n  full interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<table cellSpacing=\"3\" cellPadding=\"7\" width=\"80%\" border=\"0\">\n<tr>\n<td vAlign=\"top\" width=\"104\"><b>Kate Adie:<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/b><\/td>\n<td vAlign=\"top\" width=\"483\">&quot; Oh I will be. And what actually appalls me<br \/>\n      is the difference between twelve years ago and now. I&#8217;ve seen a complete<br \/>\n      erosion of any kind of acknowledgment that reporters should be able to<br \/>\n      report as they witness.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>      &quot; The Americans&#8230; and I&#8217;ve been talking to the Pentagon &#8230;take the<br \/>\n      attitude which is <b>entirely<\/b> hostile to the free spread of<br \/>\n      information.&quot; <\/p>\n<p>      &quot; I was told by a senior officer in the Pentagon, that if uplinks &#8211;that<br \/>\n      is the television signals out of&#8230; Bhagdad, for example&#8211; were detected<br \/>\n      by any planes &#8230;electronic media&#8230; mediums, of the military above<br \/>\n      Bhagdad&#8230; they&#8217;d be fired down on. Even if they were journalists ..&#8217; Who<br \/>\n      cares! &#8216; said.. [inaudible] ..&quot;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td vAlign=\"top\" width=\"104\">Tom McGurk:<\/td>\n<td vAlign=\"top\" width=\"483\">&quot;&#8230;Kate &#8230;sorry Kate ..just to underline<br \/>\n      that. Sorry to interrupt you. Just to explain for our listeners. Uplinks<br \/>\n      is where you have your own satellite telephone method of distributing<br \/>\n      information.&quot;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td vAlign=\"top\" width=\"104\"><b>Kate Adie:<\/b><\/td>\n<td vAlign=\"top\" width=\"483\">&quot; The telephones and the television signals.&quot;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td vAlign=\"top\" width=\"104\">Tom McGurk:<\/td>\n<td vAlign=\"top\" width=\"483\">&quot; And they would be fired on? &quot; <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td vAlign=\"top\" width=\"104\"><b>Kate Adie:<\/b><\/td>\n<td vAlign=\"top\" width=\"483\"><b>&quot; Yes. They would be &#8216;targeted down,&#8217; <br \/>\n      said the officer.&quot; <\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td vAlign=\"top\" width=\"104\">Tom McGurk:<\/td>\n<td vAlign=\"top\" width=\"483\">&quot; Extraordinary ! &quot; <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kate Adie Let&#8217;s take a moment to talk about &quot;the war&quot;&#8230; or rather, the fairly odd panic sweeping the nation in the wake of the coming conflict. Now, we have talked a little bit about this before so I won&#8217;t spend too much time covering the old ground. I have found it fairly interesting to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":53216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[278],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/legacyiamsenseiken.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50952"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/legacyiamsenseiken.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/legacyiamsenseiken.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/legacyiamsenseiken.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/legacyiamsenseiken.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/legacyiamsenseiken.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/legacyiamsenseiken.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/legacyiamsenseiken.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/legacyiamsenseiken.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/legacyiamsenseiken.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}