- LONDON (Reuters) - Washington
and London are keen to cloak the details of their war against terrorism
in secrecy, but key aspects of the campaign could be forced into the open
if Afghanistan's rulers start using the media to their advantage.
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- Military analysts believe that if the ruling Taliban
allow international news teams to report on the bombing of their country,
the allies will have to explain themselves more fully.
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- U.S. and British defense chiefs have gone out of their
way to tell news organizations that they will be clamping down on
information
during the campaign aimed at rooting out Saudi-born militant Osama bin
Laden, who is hiding in Afghanistan.
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- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has given repeated
warnings since last month's attacks on the United States that anyone who
discusses classified information about military plans is breaking the law
and risking the lives of service personnel.
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- Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, Britain's Chief of the Defense
Staff, put it more enigmatically, telling reporters: ``Sometimes you will
know, sometimes you won't, about what is going on.''
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- Before the U.S.-British air attacks even began last
Sunday,
Britain's defense ministry summoned national editors to voice fears that
newspaper speculation about what sort of military campaign was being
plotted
might inadvertently aid the enemy.
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- One British expert familiar with U.S. defense matters
said: ''Rumsfeld has threatened the defense industry with excommunication
if they let a word out about what is happening in Afghanistan. We are all
going to be fumbling in the dark for a very long time.''
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- Chris Aaron, editor of the authoritative Jane's
Intelligence
Review, said that for the military, information was an ever more vital
tool of war.
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- ``The military is trained in media management and it
is obviously an issue that they take seriously in terms of prosecuting
the war,'' he told Reuters.
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- MILITARY BRIEFERS
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- So far, the main sources of information about the
U.S.-led
bombing raids are the military briefers. Veteran correspondents say they
are being less forthcoming about targets and battle damage than during
the 1999 Kosovo campaign or 1991 Gulf War.
-
- And in the absence of independent reports from the ground
in Afghanistan, there is nothing to challenge aerial photographs showing
damage to Taliban military facilities by bombs said to have been dropped
with pinpoint accuracy.
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- ``When Donald Rumsfeld...declares himself satisfied with
the accuracy of the attacks, who can contradict him?'' asked Britain's
Guardian newspaper.
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- This information strategy is currently being aided by
the Taliban's policy of banning foreign news teams from Afghanistan,
military
analysts believe.
-
- Challenged about accusations from Afghan sources that
allied bombs had killed civilians, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon
was able to say quite truthfully that he had no independent verification
of the reports.
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- But if the Taliban allow international media to produce
their own pictures, the allies will have to respond.
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- The removal of foreign aid workers from Afghanistan
deprives
the media of one key source of information about civilians.
-
- Unlike the Serbs, who during the Kosovo campaign were
quick to invite foreign news teams to film the ``collateral damage'' caused
when allied bombs killed civilians, the Taliban have yet to harness the
full power of television.
-
- Television is banned in Afghanistan and the country's
20 million people never saw the two hijacked airliners smash into New
York's
World Trade Center on September 11.
-
- ``They don't really understand the power of television,''
one analyst said.
-
- So far, bin Laden has issued only a small number of
videotaped
statements through the Qatar-based al Jazeera Arab satellite news
network.
-
- By this means, he avoided any uncomfortable questions
from journalists and showed a knack for manipulating the media.
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- The Americans do not want to be outdone on managing the
message -- a priority since they lost media backing in the Vietnam
War.
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- As bin Laden's message was replayed on networks around
the world, the administration urged broadcasters to exercise restraint,
saying it might contain coded messages inciting followers to further
attacks
on America.
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