{"id":9421,"date":"2015-06-25T06:10:32","date_gmt":"2015-06-25T11:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=9421"},"modified":"2015-06-25T06:10:32","modified_gmt":"2015-06-25T11:10:32","slug":"pentagon-brands-belligerent-journalists-as-legitimate-enemy-combatant-targets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=9421","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon Brands ‘Belligerent’ Journalists As Legitimate “Enemy Combatant” Targets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pentagon Brands ‘Belligerent’ Journalists As Legitimate “Enemy Combatant” Targets<\/a><\/h3>\n

The Pentagon has released an\u00a01,176-page book of instructions on the “The Law Of War”<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0detailing acceptable ways of killing the enemy. The manual also states that\u00a0journalists can be labeled “unprivileged belligerents,”<\/strong>\u00a0an obscure term that replaces the Bush era “unlawful enemy combatant.”<\/p>\n

As The Washington Times reports<\/a>, an eye-catching section deals with a definition of journalists and how they are expected to stay out of the fight –<\/p>\n

\n
“In general, journalists are civilians. However, journalists may be members of the armed forces, persons authorized to accompany the armed forces, or unprivileged belligerents.”<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n

While the Pentagon did not specify the exact circumstances under which a journalist might be declared an unprivileged belligerent, lumping terrorist writers with bona fide reporters prompted a civilian lawyer who opines on war crime cases to call the wording\u00a0\u201can odd and provocative thing for them to write.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael Rubin, a Middle East expert at the American Enterprise Institute, said the manual reflects today\u2019s muddled world of journalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a realization that not everyone abides by the same standards we do,\u201d said Mr. Rubin.\u00a0\u201cJust as Hamas uses United Nations schools as weapons depots and Iran uses charity workers for surveillance, many terrorist groups use journalists as cover.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Rubin recalled that two al Qaeda terrorists posed as journalists to assassinate anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. Chechen Islamists went on missions with camera crews.<\/p>\n

\u201cJournalists are the new consultant. Anyone can claim to be one,\u201d he said. \u201cNo American serviceman should ever be killed because a politician told them they had to take a foreign journalist at his or her word.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As RT adds,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The 1,176-page \u201cDepartment of Defense Law of War Manual\u201d explains that\u00a0shooting, exploding, bombing, stabbing, or cutting the enemy are acceptable ways of getting the job done, but the use of poison or asphyxiating gases is not allowed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Surprise attacks and killing retreating troops have also been given the green light.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pentagon Brands ‘Belligerent’ Journalists As Legitimate “Enemy Combatant” Targets The Pentagon has released an\u00a01,176-page book of instructions on the “The Law Of War”\u00a0detailing acceptable ways of killing the enemy. The manual also states that\u00a0journalists can be labeled “unprivileged belligerents,”\u00a0an obscure term that replaces the Bush era “unlawful enemy combatant.” As The Washington Times reports, an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23,6706,4873,6707,462,2324,584,620,6705,862,6704,4318],"class_list":["post-9421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-al-qaeda","tag-belligerent-journalists","tag-bush","tag-enemy-combatant","tag-journalism","tag-journalists","tag-obama","tag-pentagon","tag-us-department-of-defense","tag-war","tag-war-law","tag-zerohedge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9422,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9421\/revisions\/9422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}