Five Embeds Booted Out of Iraq in Recent Months

By: Joe Strupp As Iraq moves closer to its first democratic elections later this month, the number of news organizations requesting embedded slots with military units there is on the rise, according to officials. But those new embeds better watch their step. E&P has learned that five journalists have been kicked out of embed slots in the past three months for reporting secure information.

"They were all for operational security reasons, (revealing) something that would have been of use to the enemy," Maj. Kris Meyle, who runs the embed program, told E&P from Baghdad this morning. "Generally, it gets done very quickly. Usually it was something that was not done intentionally by the reporter."

Meyle would not disclose the identities of those who were "disembedded" or the news organizations for which they worked. But she did not recall any from newspapers. "I remember them being broadcast," she said.

She also warned that those seeking slots in an effort to get close coverage of the Iraqi elections later this month may be wasting their time. "We are telling people who request an embed during elections that they will not necessarily be near a polling place," Major Meyle said. "That is not our role."

Meyle also stressed that all embeds remain under restrictions against releasing information that is deemed sensitive or a threat to military security.

As of the last count, on New Year's Day, 54 journalists were embedded in Iraq, Meyle said, adding that the number can change daily. At that time, the largest group was embedded with the Multinational Division (MND) in Baghdad, which had 19 journalists.

Among the others: Eleven were in MND West; 10 in MND North, which includes Mosul; seven in MND South; and six in North Central Iraq, near Tikrit and Sumara.

Embedded journalists in Iraq topped 800 at the height of combat in 2003, but their number has since dwindled to the double digits in the past year or so. The tally increased briefly in October when the first Marine Expeditionary Force prepared for its Fallujah assault, drawing 70 journalists to its ranks alone.

"They just couldn't support all of the media who wanted to go," Meyle said about the Fallujah operation.

Meyle said she had not kept tabs on how many requests for embed slots during the elections had come in, but she said it was more than usual. "We are getting quite a number of them," she said. "The units will decide how many folks they can take and it is up to the units who they can support and when."