Prince's cover in Afghanistan blown by Drudge Report
The Drudge Report have broke the news that Prince Harry has been serving in Afghanistan, much to the chagrin of the Ministry of Defence and the head of the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, who will now have to withdraw the Prince from Afghanistan for his own safety.
Apparently British newspapers and TV were aware of his involvement but had agreed to a press embargo in exchange for favourable access once his tour was complete. Now that Matt Drudge has opened his mouth they will have to withdraw this "bullet magnet" immediately.
I turned on my TV last night and it was a sort of Harry-love-fest with footage of him sitting in what looked like a desert with a tank behind him and a gun jutting out of his breast jacket pocket, and later we had footage of him firing a machine gun. The notion that he was actually engaged in battle with the Taliban as ITN filmed this sequence was ludicrous.The decision to send Prince Harry, 23, to Afghanistan under a cloak of secrecy came after the furore that followed the revelation of his proposed deployment to Iraq. Much to the Prince's frustration, General Dannatt announced in May last year that it would be too risky, fearing the Prince and his comrades in the Household Cavalry would become top priority targets for insurgents.
Immediately, officers decided the only way the third-in-line to the throne could continue to do his duty without creating an additional security risk was to send him secretly, calling on the media to co-operate in a news blackout.
By July, editors of key newspapers and broadcasting organisations were sounded out to see if such assistance would be forthcoming. Without dissent, all agreed that it was the only sensible and safe solution.
In December, days before Cornet Wales – as the Prince is known in The Blues and Royals – deployed to Helmand, editors met MoD officials and signed an understanding setting out the terms of the news blackout. While not a legally binding document, it was a statement of faith from the British press.
It was also strange to later find out that he has been retrained as a forward air controller and was not single handedly battling the Taliban from his little gunner outpost, which is certainly the impression one got from watching the TV coverage.
The prince had retrained as an FAC after being refused permission to fight in Iraq alongside the men he had led in his regiment as troop leader. He admits now he was regarded as a "bullet magnet". As a compromise, he was allowed, under strict conditions of secrecy, to work from a fortified position a distance away from the frontline in Helmand province, calling in aircraft and observing enemy movements.
So, thanks to Matt Drudge, it appears that Harry's little military adventure is over. But, in terms of PR, I feel sure the royals have got all they wanted out of this and that pictures of little Harry "fighting the Taliban" will plague us for years to come.It is thought the source for the Drudge Report article was a story printed last month in an Australian women's magazine, New Idea. The Drudge Report is most famous for breaking the Monica Lewinsky scandal after Newsweek decided not to publish the story.
At 3.30pm yesterday the MoD received a call, confirming fears that a foreign news organisation would break the silence. A decision was taken to make a formal statement confirming the Prince had been in Afghanistan.
"I am very disappointed that foreign websites have decided to run this story without consulting us. This is in stark contrast to the highly responsible attitude that the whole of the UK print and broadcast media, along with a small number of overseas outlets, who have entered into an understanding with us over the coverage of Prince Harry on operations," General Dannatt said.
"The editors took the commendable attitude to restrain their coverage. I would like to thank them for that."
But it does beg the question, why does Drudge hate the troops and want to endanger them?
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