The Sun

[zero megahertz]

Hey did anyone else see the article on the front page of the Sun entitled SAS Hits Back or something like that, describing how teams of SAS snipers would be deployed in Iraq to take out Republican Guard snipers. Is this not compromising the operation?

[lew]

Mate its in the sun !!!!!!


lew

[zero megahertz]

Duly noted lol

[Cronkilla]

Its also widely discussed in various books about NI and the SAS . There was a notorious sniper nicknamed 'goldfinger' and such techniques were used to capture him(and many others). The guy he targeted(sigs) was listening to him saying im going to get the sig in 5...4...3...2,needless to say the poor sod jumped out the way(can you blame him).

[Jason The Argonaut]

The Sun, the newspaper you can trust , as many people say as well as my dad it's more like a comic than a newspaper, but I like to read it gives me a laugh or 2.

[harry hackedoff]

Firstly, there`s a world of difference between a poorly trained shoot-and-scoot artist and a sniper in the true sense of the word.
Secondly, the use of counter-sniping teams is probably S.O.P.
Thirdly, the Iraqis know this already

[Sisyphus]

Fourthly:

It is part of the role of the press/media to inform the enemy of our strategy and tactics. Half of what the Argentinians learned about our forces in the Falklands came from the media.

Tosspots

And whoever thought up the idea of 'embedded journalists' must have been off his/her trolley. As must the idiot in the MoD who agreed to it.

[Tom Dickson]

From what I heard everyone in Iraq reads the Sun most poular newspaper in Bagdad and Edited by the Iraqi information minister

[sp10122]

I won't hear a thing against the informed political debate of the Sun.

Right, I'm off to bet my mortgage that Saddam's about to return to power with Alistair Campbell running the show for him.

[Dmanton300]

Fourthly:


And whoever thought up the idea of 'embedded journalists' must have been off his/her trolley. As must the idiot in the MoD who agreed to it.

Actually my thoughts on this have changed from thinking it was insane to perhaps being just short of genius as far as the PR game goes. When embedded *the military* controls these people, and aside from the usual bitching you always see it means that for the most part you can get them on-side, indeed more than once it appeared to me that an "embedded" reporter was being haplessly played like a violin by the unit he was embedded with. And embedding them did the actual guys on the ground no end of PR favours. . . it showed the vast majority of them to be just normal guys doing an extraordinary job, which is never a bad thing. And the reporters felt protected (see Terry Lloyd for what happens when you go it alone in a combat zone).
Basically the reporters may have thought they'd pulled a major coup to get embedded with units, but it was the units in question who made the best use of what was probably, to them, just another tool. All those sneary, superior journos were no match for the wiley cunning of Jack/Tom/Royal/Biggles in the PR game!

[sp10122]

Good points there Dmanton

I was surprised to see on 'Fighting the War' on BBC 2 the exasperation that the media relations guys had with the press and media.

At one stage the Colonel briefed that an attack was ongoing using a US Division. He then had to explain in detail what a division is to this journalist. It'd be like being a football reporter and not knowing what Old Trafford is. At another point these journos were getting uppity because they wouldn't fly them into Iraq whilst they were still fighting their way in. Personally I can think of better things to do with my support helicopters than bus a load of journalists around so they can look good on TV.

I've never really been impressed by journalists but the lack of knowledge these people have about what they're reporting about I find staggering. As I'm sure we've all seen, some of the errors made in articles about the forces (that even someone with v limited experience would know) are quite worrying.

In another episode the BBC news carried a report that an attack was about to go in on the Al-for peninsular. All these RMs were sat there about to go, scratchting their heads saying.....at least they know we're coming. Thankfully there wasn't a large military force waiting for them to land. The same thing happened in Goose Green but the Argies thought that it must be a bluff...

I hope these people are happy with their stories and fame...because they don't seem to care about the problems it creates for the people on the sharp end.

[Tab]

You can bet if there was any truth in the story then the BBC oversea's service would have broadcast it to Irqa just so that they would know what is going on.

[sp10122]

Right, I'm off to bet my mortgage that Saddam's about to return to power with Alistair Campbell running the show for him.

Looks like I was right!!!! Nothing to do with the Hutton Inquiry then

[Topper]

Alistair Campbell is off to get a job with Gordon Brown.