Targetting independent correspondents?

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Ken Sinclair <khs () wirelesscomputing net>
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 10:09:37 -0500
To: dave () farber net
Subject: For IP: Targetting independent correspondents?

The US military is threatening to target the RF emissions of
communication equipment used by independent journalists in Iraq.  This
may effectively extend the Pentagon's press control to international
journalists as well as domestic.

Link and contents follow.

Is this a real or empty threat?  Most of the "smart" munitions are GPS
guided, and I would guess that actual emissions-seeking air-to-ground
weapons would only home in on pretty clearly-defined radar-type signals.
Targetting an intermittent undefined communication signal seems like it
would have to involve long-range acquisition and analysis, and a human
decision process following legal guidelines.

Ken Sinclair
khs () wirelesscomputing net


http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=8238

IN A CYNICAL bid to ensure that the people of the world see only what
they need to see, the US has threatened to target independent
journalists working in Iraq when the invasion kicks off.

Star BBC war reporter and UK national treasure Kate Adie told Irish
radio, "The Americans... take the attitude which is entirely hostile to
the free spread of information."

She said she was told by "a senior officer in the Pentagon" that "if
uplinks -- that is the television signals out of... Baghdad, for example
-- were detected by any planes ...electronic media... mediums of the
military above Baghdad... they'd be fired down on. Even if they were
journalists .."

Adie was joining a discussion hosted by Tom McGurk on the issue of media
freedom during the expected war on Iraq. The veteran reporter said she
feared many more restrictions on the press than those that were enforced
last time around.

She said, "this time the Americans are: a) Asking journalists who go
with them, whether they are... have feelings against the war. And
therefore if you have views that are sceptical, then you are not to be
acceptable.

"Secondly, they are intending to take control of the Americans'
technical equipment ...those uplinks and satellite phones I was talking
about. And control access to the airwaves."

"And then on top of everything else, there is now a blackout (which was
imposed, during the last war, at the beginning of the war), ...ordered
by one Mr. Dick Cheney, who is in charge of this."

"I am enormously pessimistic of the chance of decent on-the-spot
reporting, as the war occurs. You will get it later."

Website Gulufuture.com has posted a transcript of the interview here.


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