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Pentagon, news media debate war coverage

By TOBIN BECK, UPI Executive Editor

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- The Pentagon is committed to providing the American people with as much information as possible on the U.S. war in Afghanistan, but concern for the sensitivities of countries hosting American forces and the need for security of Special Operations missions limit news media access, Pentagon spokesmen said Thursday.

Torie Clarke, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, told a seminar hosted by the Brookings Institution that "in general, I think things have been going well" with the Pentagon providing the news media briefings and access to information about the war.

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Most of the discussion in the 90-minute seminar focused on two areas:

-- How can reporters get better access to U.S. forces stationed near Afghanistan, particularly troops in Uzbekistan?

-- How can the Pentagon provide access to and information about Special Operations Forces operating in Afghanistan?

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Chuck Lewis, Washington bureau chief for Hearst Newspapers, questioned why the Pentagon wasn't pushing countries hosting U.S. forces to allow U.S. reporters access to them. He said it sounded like the "same old story for those of us who covered Desert Storm," the 1991 war against Iraq, in which reporters at one point were asked not to cover services for U.S. military who were Christians, to avoid offending Saudi sensibilities.

He said in the current conflict, reporters have not had access to the Army's 10th Mountain Division soldiers deployed to Uzbekistan.

Clarke, who recently returned from a trip with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to Central Asian countries to bolster support for the U.S.-led military efforts, said sensitivities of host countries must be taken into account. She said it was a "good compromise" if in exchange for gaining a country's agreement to host U.S. forces, the Pentagon agreed to respect the country's request to help keep the matter quiet.

Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman, said he looked at media access as a mathematical equation involving two key variables: operational security and host nation sensitivity. "You must solve for both variables," he said.

Quigley recently accompanied Gen. Tommy Franks on a nine-day trip through the region. Franks is commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command and theater commander of U.S. operations in the Afghan war. Quigley said he repeatedly saw that operational security concerns -- particularly for coverage of Special Operations -- ruled out allowing reporters on scene.

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"I went in with an eye to 'how can we do this,'" Quigley said. Time and again, he said, he saw "there was nothing you (photographers) could shoot, no paragraph you could write, that would not run smack into operational security."

Asked by Marvin Kalb as to whether he had taken any journalists on the trip, Quigley said no, but added that he had discussed the issues with journalists "and they have no ideas, either."

Kalb is a former CBS and NBC television newsman who now is executive director of the Washington office of Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. He was moments into his opening address to the conference when a fire alarm went off because of a bomb threat to a building next door, forcing participants outside. Clarke quickly worked to move the conference down the street to the National Cable and Telecommunications Association auditorium, where it continued after a delay of about 30 minutes.

The seminar, with about 35 participants, followed a series of a half-dozen meetings and teleconferences between the Pentagon and news media bureau chiefs to discuss ways of improving access to information about the war. Brookings and the Pentagon hosted the seminar.

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Clarke said the Pentagon was "looking hard" at how to provide more access to Special Operations troops, including interview access to some of the soldiers who took part in missions.

Asked whether some kind of security review might be possible that would enable reporters to cover Special Operations missions, Clarke replied that she had "very few to no concerns about how the media cover" the war. "I know people don't want to jeopardize operational security," she said.

But responding to a question about whether reporters would be allowed to "embed" or bivouac with Army Rangers taking part in special operations, a spokesman said "no."

"At the present time, embedding is out of the question" to avoid compromising operational security, said Col. Bill Darley, spokesman for the Special Operations Command.

Clarke also was asked about the Special Operations mission in which Army Rangers dropped onto the Kandahar airport while Delta Force special forces went to the nearby home of Taliban leader Mullah Mohamed Omar on Oct. 20.

A story by reporter Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker magazine said 12 Delta soldiers were wounded, including three seriously, a claim the Pentagon has denied. Clarke said again Thursday: "Where Sy Hersh went wrong was in saying these injuries were from Taliban fire, and nothing could be further from the truth." She said some soldiers had been injured blowing open a door, but the injuries were "scratches."

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She said the Pentagon had been honest and straightforward in providing information on the raid, based on information relayed up the chain of command, though in response to a question, she agreed that the information could have been provided faster. She also noted that the Pentagon provided video of the Rangers operation at the airport, though she said it was more than 100 hours after the conclusion of the operation, largely because of the logistic hurdles involved --the operation occurred while she was along on Rumsfeld's trip.

Tom DeFrank, Washington bureau chief of the New York Daily News noted his long Army career before becoming a journalist and said, "the military basically doesn't want us around" because reporters get in the way and potentially jeopardize operational security.

He said maybe the best that can be hoped for is sanitized versions of special operations. "Maybe that's the way it has to be," he said.

Navy spokesman Rear Adm. Stephen Pietropaoli said most military personnel saw little to no benefit to themselves from working with the news media and a big potential danger if they screwed up, though recent coverage such as live television broadcasts from the bridge of the USS Enterprise had shown some commanders the public relations value, he said.

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But he added, "when it's a question of operational security vs. press access -- military people will put the mission first."

Clarke said Rumsfeld believes the support of the American people is critical for successful prosecution of the war, and for that, people need accurate information. Clarke said Pentagon leadership recognized the importance of helping the news media do their jobs.

Clarke also said Rumsfeld, while in Congress, as a representative from Illinois, was one of the authors of the Freedom of Information Act.

James Steinberg of Brookings said Americans particularly want to know about the war against terrorism because they are concerned about their own safety in light of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.

"How we do on this is going to have an impact on how safe we are in our homes," he said.

After the seminar ended, Ron Nessen came up to Clarke and told an anecdote about Rumsfeld. Nessen, vice president of communications for Brookings, was White House press secretary under President Gerald Ford and Rumsfeld was Ford's chief of staff as the United States withdrew from Vietnam in April 1975.

Nessen said the White House had announced that all Americans had been evacuated from Vietnam when it was learned that 48 Marines -- the rear guard --were still in the U.S. Embassy compound. He said that during the discussion as to whether to send an amended announcement or just figure they all would be out in two hours any way, Rumsfeld spoke up and said: "The war has been marked with so many lies, let's not end it with another one." And a corrected statement was sent out.

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"That to me said a lot about Don Rumsfeld," Nessen said.


(UPI Executive Editor Tobin Beck was a participant in the Brookings forum.)

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