Stop-Loss and the new 'embedded journalists'

[rainonlevs]

Great show on Democracy Now! last Friday that I'm watching now:

Stop-Loss: A Look at the US Military Policy that Creates a “Backdoor Draft” to Force Soldiers to Continue Service
With about 175,000 troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the US military has been forced to rely on a controversial policy known as “stop-loss” to force soldiers

Comments

[rainonlevs]

There's no question that the US military has been killing reporters, and in particular that they have killed more reporters in Iraq than in any other conflict in US history; the question is why it has been happening. The military has also been imprisoning reporters without charge for months and years, only releasing them when enough pressure is brought against them.

As with so many other Geneva conventions, the rights of the press are out the window as well. If you are not embedded with the troops, press credentials will not stop bullying, physical abuse, imprisonment, torture or being specifically targetted and killed.

Even here in the US, militarized police forces (equipped and trained with national defense funds) are not only sweeping journalists up in their attacks on activists, but specifically target journalists and others with any recording devices. Personally, I would say that this is an extension of the general environment of secrecy and authoritarianism that the White House promotes. When the White House supports attacks on reporters, and attacks reporters verbally as enemies of the state, that sends a message throughout that reporters are now fair game.

[redwoodpecker]

They were talking about this on Democracy Now today, of course they've been doing this since 9/11 but they're still placing undercover agents in innocuous protest organizations and the like, supposedly in the effort to fight terrorism. In this case it was a group protesting the death penalty and setting up stalls at farmers markets.

Clearly, if it is true that they're deliberately killing reporters, which I have very little reason to doubt, it can be for only one reason, to crush dissent. Whether you're here protesting the war, or just general policy, or in Iraq trying to get stories of what's really happening to the people, you are going to be targeted. Eventually no one will be willing to speak out in any way.

I don't expect any of this will stop regardless of whether McCain or Obama gets in the white house, and the fact that they both support telecom immunity only bolsters that belief.