Maybe this means something. Maybe it doesn’t. But it’s interesting to note that Operation Swarmer, the biggest air assault raid in Iraq since ’03 — and certainly the one with the most Iraqi participation — doesn’t have any only has a single embedded reporters along for the ride. (Big ops in the past, like October’s Iron Fist, usually have several.)
The Pentagon said there were no reporters embedded with U.S. troops, and it released video and a series of photos of preparations for the assault. The images showed Soldiers receiving a preflight briefing from a UH-60 Blackhawk crew chief, Soldiers and aircraft positioned on an airstrip, and helicopters taking off over a dusty landscape.
UPDATE 2:08 PM: I’m told CNN’s Nic Robertson did wind up with an embed, the only one.
UPDATE: 2:10 PM: “According to a colleague of mine from TIME who traveled up [to Smarra] today on a U.S. embassy-sponsored trip, there are no insurgents, no fighting and 17 of the 41 prisoners taken have already been released after just one day,” says Chris Allbritton. “The ‘number of weapons caches’ equals six, which isnt unusual when you travel around Iraq. Theyre literally everywhere. “
(Big ups: Duncan)
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I just can’t see where we ever needed civilian photographers on the battlefield. I have nothing against them, but so many of them over sensationalize their stories to get noteriety and end up hurting the mission at hand. I really don’t think it does anyone any good to have them there. Good luck on the mission men.
Good Morning Folks,
This seems to be one of the dumber things that Central Command has done in a while. No Civilian Media means for suce that this operation (Samarra) will be looked at and scrutinized very closly by the Media.
It makes me wonder if the DoD sometimes creates there own problems knowingly, maybe we have a cover up of a cover up in the making here. It’s time for my conspiracy oriented pals to come to the surface.
The question being here, what are the Bushies trying to hid with the “Samarra Assault”?
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
1. This is the 4th joint US-Iraqi AAslt op in the last 6mo.
2. AAslt is what the 101 does. This is normal ops.
3. Original press releases from Centcom and subordinates was no different in details or amount than previous reports.
4. My best guess is that it was a slow news day and the MSM needed a lead. So they hyped an operation after having ignored the previous ones. And now that it is becoming apparent that they are overhyping it, they will start the blame game.
I think this is a dry run. I was there all last year in aviation and we would sometimes take units out on missions with no planned enemy. In the US we ‘certify’ our units by sending them to training centers before we deploy them to combat. This is the Iraqi equivalent.
Info on Fox is that it was an Iraqi operation — they picked up tips on the Samarra merecenaries, planned the mission, and called in coalition for resources. If so, then that would be the true story, not the early headlines and “Breaking News!” alerts.
Police uniforms and ID were found among the weapons too — we still don’t know who was killed, by whom, and why, after the attack on the mosque of the final imams. Reporters should be doing a better job.
ES: that’s a very interesting possibility. If it was largely Iraqi units involved, they would get experience in participating in a big operation with heavy US air support, the sort of operation the Pentagon is on record as saying they want to transition to. They wouldn’t want them to work out their problems against a hard target, so they chose a soft one. You don’t have your shakedown cruise in a hurricane. It would certainly explain a lot.