News reports and silly secrecy..

Interesting that we now find out that there are rules that limit what "embedded" Canadian journalists can report. How do we know when a journalist is embedded? What sense does not revealing the location of the base make when the location of the base is widely known and has often been reported upon! The base is in the UAE in case you want to know. Here is one of numerous references.
I’ve been receiving reports from some folks in Kandahar about how their leave time in Dubai is being affected by an incident at Camp Mirage located in the United Arab Emirates.
(The fact that Camp Mirage is in the UAE is the worst kept secret in the CF…..Canadian embedded journalists are not allowed to give its location but my friends at the Globe and Mail wrote about it three years ago and the Mirage location is all over the internet. As Globe reporter Paul Koring noted, “Camp Mirage is on Minhad Air Force Base in the desert south of the glittering port city of Dubai, one of seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates. The Canadian government's own pay scale and living-allowance information include references to Minhad and the fact that Camp Mirage is in the UAE.”)

Now you all know and so I guess the security of our troops must be severely compromised! Baloney.

Anyway we don't get any news of whatever caused this chap's death either. I guess what is important news is all this mysteriousness.



Canadian soldier found dead in Middle East TheStar.com - World - Canadian soldier found dead in Middle East
July 05, 2008 Jackson HayesStaff Reporterand canadian pressA Canadian soldier was found dead in his quarters early yesterday morning, the military said today.
The body of Corporal Brendan Anthony Downey, a military policeman based in Dundurn, Sask., was found shortly after 4 a.m. at a base located in the Gulf region. The location of the base was not made public.
The location of the base in the Persian Gulf has been previously reported but cannot be revealed under terms of the Canadian Forces embedding agreement for Canadian media.
The Canadian government avoids describing the base — called Camp Mirage — to avoid drawing attention to its presence.
Downey is the 12th Canadian soldier killed this year in Afghan-related operations.
Military officials are not elaborating on the circumstances of Downey’s death, other than saying that an investigation is ongoing and that “enemy action has been ruled out.”