EMBEDDING MEDIA WAS MILITARY VICTORY AGAINST TRUTH
"Americans placed the correspondents within the units and they in effect were transformed into hostages of the U.S. forces"
AMNON BARZILAI, HA'ARETZ - By `embedding' more than 600 journalists with the invading troops during the Iraq war, the U.S. scored a public relations coup, while giving the public very little information. . . Since the end of the war in Iraq, a number of Israeli bodies have been studying the way in which the United States activated the American media during the hostilities. The IDF Spokesperson, Brigadier General Ruth Yaron, has set up a team to draw and implement lessons; Gideon Meir, a deputy director-general of the Foreign Ministry and the head of its Information Department, is examining, together with two universities, the possibility of funding research on the cooperation between the American armed forces and the media and the technique of "embedding" the American correspondents in the combat units in Iraq; and at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, two researchers, Hirsh Goodman and Jonathan Cummings, are collecting material about the American media revolution in the war.
"For the first time, the Americans recognized that the media has a large influence on national security," says Goodman, a former military correspondent of The Jerusalem Post and editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Report. . . Goodman describes the new concept of "embedding" journalists as a "policy of genius based on the lessons learned from the 1991 Gulf War." . . .
According to Goodman, "The guidelines also stipulated that a commander in the field, based on his discretion, could block broadcasts on grounds of field security and fear of the unit's premature identification. The result is that Americans placed the correspondents within the units and that they in effect were transformed into hostages of the U.S. forces, which explained this by citing the fierce desire to enhance democracy."
In the first few days of the American attack, notes Brigadier General Yaron, "all the images that were broadcast from aircraft carriers were accompanied by the noise of planes taking off and landing, and the only thing that was reported was that Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired. The reporters added that they were forbidden to report the missiles' destination. From the television point of view, that was absurd. The reports provided nothing, but the situation satisfied the media, whether because the correspondent was on the battlefield, close to the arena of events, or because the images were broadcast in real time, and above all, because the correspondent was accessible and it was possible to feed the monster known as the media with images."
Each correspondent who was "embedded" in a U.S. military unit signed an official military release form in which he committed himself to abide by the restrictions and limitations. Among other restrictions, correspondents undertook not to photograph detention facilities, not to interview detainees, and not to photograph Special Forces teams or their equipment. They also undertook to remain in the areas in which they were ordered to stay by the public relations personnel of the units and not to broadcast images that would identify faces, names of units or other similar details. The document also contained a lengthy list of types of information that could not be published for fear of risking operations or human life: the size of the order of battle of tanks, artillery, radar systems and logistics equipment; the geographical location of units and facilities; and information about future missions, including the delay or postponement of operations. Embedded correspondents were also forbidden to report information about the enemy, such as the effectiveness of their electronic combat forces or their camouflage ability.
In addition, every correspondent had to sign a declaration of health and state that he released the government of the United States of all responsibility in the event that he suffered injury and of all damage caused him because of military activity.
According to Brigadier General Yaron, "The Americans scattered 600 journalists around Iraq. The viewer felt he received exclusive reports from the field, but what did we get in practice? Did we see battle scenes? Definitely not. The embedding idea is a stroke of genius. And I don't dare say that. It was one huge deception. They took a journalist and let him broadcast, but in fact he didn't have a clue about what was happening."