The Marines mounted a textbook operation, which began with well-armed Seals and reconnaissance teams coming ashore to check the beach for mines and hostile defenders, followed by an assault force.
But there was one little problem. When the Marines hit the shore, they encountered a force they didn't expect. Not armed with guns, tanks, or artillery, this force was equipped with cameras, notepads, and spotlights.
Aware of the mission, the media had beat the Marines to location.
As Navy Seals and Marine reconnaissance teams came shore under the glare of television lights, the spotlights and flash attachments gave away their positions, interfered with their sophisticated night-vision equipment and gave night blindness to commandos who wanted to have their eyes fully adjusted to darkness in case they were attacked from the dunes and scrub.
Oops.
According the article, there was miscommunication between the Pentagon and the media. The Pentagon let the media know when and where the forces would be, but the notice of what effect the media presence would have on the landing forces was not mentioned.
the Pentagon issued a press advisory asking correspondents to stay off the beaches and began the time-consuming process of faxing them to news organizations in the United States. In some cases the advisory was not faxed to news organizations until 6 P.M., after the Seals landed. It was unclear whether any effort was made to contact foreign news organizations.
That's not good.
In the 22 years since, the relationship between "media" and military operations is still contentious. "Media" is no longer only the major networks or newspapers. It's everyone with a smart phone and access to social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. That we have the ability to broadcast everything (and are encouraged to!) has not only caught many information security services off-guard, but has them scrambling to put band-aids on gaping wounds.
Once information is public, it is incredibly hard, if not impossible, to put the genie back in the bottle.
The reason I highlight this 22 year issue because I recently found out this isn't just a US problem, it's an everywhere problem. A recent post by GlobalVoices.com discussed how Russian troops were taking pictures of themselves on military operations in Ukraine and posting them on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media websites.
The Russian website TJournal.ru has produced an excellent roundup of the mounting photographic evidence of Russia's military presence at the border with Ukraine—all culled from Vkontakte accounts belonging to Grigoryev and his comrades. TJournal reporters found other posts mentioning Ukraine, and discovered that one of Grigoryev's VK friends even published a map of their route, which began in the town of Ordzhonikidzevskaya in Ingushetia (a region of the Russian North Caucasus) and ended in the village of Pokrovske, in the Rostov region, on the border with Ukraine.
Oops.
Of course, the soldier in question says he was "hacked" and the Russian military is responding as only they know how.
On July 29, the Russian media reported that Vadim Solovyov, a Communist Party Duma deputy, is working on amendments to the Federal law on military service that would essentially ban army servicemen from posting to social networks any photos depicting military equipment or arms. Highly sensitive information conveyed in such images, the deputy believes, undermines state security and “could be used by the Western media for provocations.” Solovyov does say that soldiers will still be allowed to use the Internet for personal correspondence.
Good luck with that.
As Princess Leia said in Star Wars, "The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."
