Restrictions--and MPs--Have Journalists on Defensive

A U.S. military policeman threatens to send vehicles with mounted machine guns after two men if they try to escape. Another unit of MPs blindfolds a third man and transports him across the desert at gunpoint.

Captured Iraqi soldiers, right? Wrong.

The incidents involved American journalists who were stopped and held by U.S. military authorities for trying to cover the war in the Persian Gulf unescorted. And they illustrate the increasing hostility of a press corps chafing under tight military restrictions and the dangers confronted by reporters who try to evade the rules in pursuit of a story.

“I’ve covered wars for 25 years and the first time I’m held prisoner is by my own military,” fumed Mort Rosenblum, a veteran Associated Press reporter.

Army Col. Larry Icenogle, a military spokesman here, said there is no policy on detaining journalists. He said a number have been held briefly and returned to Dhahran for violating coverage guidelines that restrict where journalists can go in the war zone.

Journalists here are complaining louder every day that the limited number of reporters allowed into the field to cover actual military units means that elements of the war are going uncovered and huge parts of the ground combat will go unrecorded once it starts. As a result, they say, there will be blank spots in the history of this important war.

Icenogle and other military information specialists here say they would like to increase the number of journalists in the field. There are 126 in military-organized pools covering the entire U.S. military presence of more than 500,000 troops. But they complain that field commanders say they cannot handle an increased number of reporters and that there is a lack of military personnel to escort the journalists and oversee their work.

The danger confronted by reporters here who try to get stories from hostile territory outside the formal pool arrangement is real, as evidenced by the disappearance three weeks ago of CBS correspondent Bob Simon and three crew members. Their car was found near the Kuwait border and they have not been heard from since, although network officials say they believe that the crew is being held by the Iraqis.

The risks were brought home again over the weekend when U.S. Marines found unescorted French journalists near a remote outpost on the Kuwaiti-Saudi border and ordered them out because they were in a contested area.

That was not the case when Rosenblum was held, and he and some other journalists here believe that his treatment was part of a calculated effort by the military to keep too tight a rein on reporters.

According to Rosenblum, he and AP photographer Tannen Maury had gone north from Dhahran in search of a particular Army division. As they approached the division’s headquarters, which was marked by a small sign beside the highway, they stopped at a tent occupied by MPs.

“A guy came by who looked like an officer and I stopped him and asked to see the PAO (public affairs officer),” said Rosenblum. “He said, ‘Not only will you see the PAO, you’ll wait right here for him.’ ”

Rosenblum said he and the photographer were placed under guard. When Rosenblum asked an MP officer what would happen if he tried to leave, he said the officer told him that he would send his vehicles after Rosenblum.

“Since his vehicles had .50-caliber machine guns, I didn’t argue,” said Rosenblum.

Three hours later, the two AP journalists were released.

No detained journalist has reported treatment as harsh as that experienced by Time magazine photographer Wesley D. Bocxe.

Bocxe said he had stopped to photograph a convoy of tanks many miles south of the Kuwait border and was held for 36 hours by military policemen.

He said he was blindfolded and held at gunpoint for much of the time. He was questioned about spying for Iraq.

“I was spread-eagled across a Humvee (military vehicle) and searched and blindfolded,” said Bocxe, who also said the MPs accused him of faking his press credentials. “They even asked me who the mayor of New York is.”