Al Sahab: The Cloud

"In a counterinsurgency the media battle space is critical. When it comes to battling for public opinion, rallying support, and forcing opponents to shift tactics and time tables to better suit the home team, our terrorist enemies are destroying us. Al Qaeda’s media arm is called al Sahab – the cloud. It feels more like a hurricane. While our enemies have “embedded” “journalists” crawling all over the battlefields, we have “an embed media system” that is so ineptly managed that earlier this month there were only 9 reporters embedded with American troops in Iraq. There were about 770 during the initial invasion.

My experience both as a soldier and then as a writer and photographer covering soldiers has been overwhelmingly positive, and I feel no shame saying I am biased in favor of our troops. Journalistically worse, I feel no shame in calling a terrorist a terrorist. I’ve seen their deeds and tasted air filled with burning human flesh from their bombs. I’ve seen terrorists kill children while our people risk their lives to save civilians again, and again, and again, and again. I feel no shame in saying I hope that Afghanistan and Iraq “succeed,” whatever that means. Yet I would feel unbearable shame if I were to remain silent about our military’s ineptitude in handling the press. This subject is worthy of a book, yet more immediate are the portends of a subtle but real censorship."
Michael Yon