Cheat-Seeking Missles

Friday, February 16, 2007

Reuters Keeps Taliban Location Secret

Reuters ran this photo today of some of the 10,000 Talibani hiding in some secret location, reading to attack us when the snow melts.

This raises two questions:

First, what's the fourth guy back going to do with the cooking pot? Throw it at a NATO soldier? And the third guy -- are those garden sheers? So we have five fierce Talibani with one rifle between them. Does this alter the intelligence estimate filed addressing Talaban chief Mullah Abdul Rahim's statement:
"Our war preparations, especially in southern Afghanistan and in Helmand province, are complete and for this our 10,000 fighters are ready to take up arms the moment they are ordered."
"Heave those pots for Allah!" "Clip that hedge for paradise!" "And you two, Muhammed and Muhammed -- clap loudly!!"

Second, and actually important, Reuters received a photo from a "secret" location and talked to Rahim via satellite phone, both of which involved contacts, coordination, telephone signals, maybe even IP addresses. Reuters obviously had some information military intelligence could use to make the secret location not so secret, but opted not to share it.

The media now subscribes to moral relativism, placing safety of correspondents and continued access to sources above the victory of good over evil.

Protecting their correspondents is always Reuters' excuse -- it's why they use "insurgent" instead of "terrorist," and they've admitted as much -- but in this, they are no different from the Dems, who are OK with war as long as it's bloodless and is strategically unimportant to our interests.

Here's what they could do instead: Recruit just-retired military public communications personnel, bump their salaries several-fold, and send them back to report on the troops and from the field that they're familiar with. Let them color their news with a clear knowledge of who needs to win this war.

Let them be part of the process of victory, instead of cogs in the wheel.

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