[iwar] [fc:Press-Pentagon.Wars.Begin]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-29 07:23:49
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 07:23:49 -0800 (PST)
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Washington Times
October 27, 2001
Press-Pentagon Wars Begin
By Martin Schram 
When the Pentagon and the press go to war, they move simultaneously but not
always in synch.
That is because they always seem to start each war by going to war with each
other. And it usually turns out that in these preliminary skirmishes, the
sound and semi-fury is more bombast than bomb blast.
We take you now to the Pentagon, where Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is
briefing and mildly berating the press. Now, Mr. Rumsfeld is hardly a green
berater. He is, after all, engaged in an encore performance as the
Pentagon's top gun, having first performed that role for President Gerald
Ford. 
The subject of Mr. Rumsfeld's briefing/berating of the day was leaks.
Specifically: One leak, from one or more of his own Pentagon officials,
which was splashed across the front page of The Washington Post Oct. 19,
beneath the headline: "Special Forces open ground campaign: Small numbers
are said to be operating To aid CIA effort in southern Afghanistan." Mr.
Rumsfeld said that leak put at risk the lives of U.S. Special Forces
personnel while they were conducting a hit-and-run operation. Frankly, I
have always personally liked and professionally trusted Mr. Rumsfeld; he has
always been truthful and candid when we have talked. So, as Mr. Rumsfeld's
words were being broadcast live, I found that my first reaction was that he
was right. And no doubt millions of Americans felt the same upon hearing his
words.
"It is not in our country's interest to let them know when, how or even why
we are conducting certain operations," Mr. Rumsfeld declared. He said the
leak "clearly was a violation of federal criminal law and something that was
totally in disregard for the lives of the people involved with that
information." He added: "All returned safely" - but said he was nevertheless
"floored" that someone in the Pentagon leaked that information while the
ground mission was in progress.
But then I went back and reread that Oct. 19 article in The Washington Post
- and discovered that Mr. Rumsfeld wasn't right after all. The article
carefully gave no details about where the Special Forces were operating or
what they were after. It reported: "The new Special Forces mission in
southern Afghanistan is designed to expand an ongoing CIA effort to
encourage ethnic Pashtun leaders to break away from the Taliban militia, a
senior defense official said." That evening, CBS and NBC provided some
actual details of the operation that was under way and would soon be over.
CBS' David Martin had his information earlier in the day, but did not report
it until NBC did. Then he went on the air moments later.
What actually happened in Afghanistan, as Pentagon officials publicly
announced the next day, was that U.S. Army Rangers and other Special Forces
had assaulted an airfield and raided the compound of Taliban leader Mohammed
Omar near Kandahar. The Pentagon said the mission was to capture
intelligence information - which they reportedly did - but not to capture or
kill senior leaders of the Taliban or the al Qaeda terrorist network of
Osama bin Laden, whom officials blame for last month's skyjacker attacks
that destroyed New York's World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon.
So the ground war and the Pentagon-press info-tiffs have both officially
begun, yet again. The latter, however, is hardly news. It is more aptly, a
reflexive response. With a little luck, the Pentagon-press follies won't
reach the vaudevillian proportions of the Reagan administration's invasion
of Grenada or Bush One's incursion into Panama. (In Panama, the news media
pool was kept incommunicado - so CNN covered the start of the war by using
ordinary residents who telephoned from Panama City. "Tanks are going through
the rosebud," one resident reported.)
Barry Zorthian, who was the U.S. government's media relations chief in
Saigon during the Vietnam War, wrote in an article in The Washington Times'
Oct. 22 Commentary section that even during that bitterly divisive era,
journalists "observed a set of voluntary guidelines based on the
long-accepted American principle of not publishing information which might
jeopardize either the outcome of an operation or the lives of combat
troops."
If it worked that way in yesteryear's Vietnam, it can surely work that way
today's U.S.A. - in this era when TV networks festoon their video logos with
red-white-and-blue. Come to think of it, Mr. Rumsfeld probably knows that.
Perhaps his press conference chastising was really just his way of sending a
chilling in-house memo to inspire his own team to turning off all leaking
faucets. Unless, of course, it's his hand that's turning the spigot.
Martin Schram is a nationally syndicated columnist. 

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