Posted on 03/01/2008 3:20:18 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
Prince Harry is back in London after a short-lived stint on the frontlines in Afghanistan.
The prince was pulled out of the war zone after a media leak blew the cover on his deployment in Afghanistan since December.
Second Lieutenant, Prince Harry was welcomed at an airfield outside London by his father Prince Charles and brother Prince William.
He returned after serving only 10 weeks with British troops in Afghanistan, after the foreign press leaked news of his secret deployment.
The prince is far from happy at being dragged back from the front.
''At the end of the day if you join the Army, you expect to go on operations. I don't want to sit around at Windsor. You know, it's nice to be away from all the press and the papers,'' said Prince Harry.
The prince's deployment had gone undisclosed under an agreement between the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and major news organisations, designed to protect Harry and his fellow soldiers.
Now, the Ministry of Defence said the news reports made him an easy target for terrorists in Afghanistan.
Ministry officials said he could be sent out once again, later in the year, but to areas like the south Atlantic, the Pacific Ocean, West Indies or the Persian Gulf.
None of them, areas of open armed combat but assignments that will help the prince earn more stripes.
Charles 'proud' of Harry,
Britain's Prince Charles said he was ''enormously proud'' of his youngest son Prince Harry and relieved to see him home ''in one piece'' as the young royal returned to the country on Saturday from the Afghan frontline.
At the same time, the heir to the British throne said he was frustrated that Harry's stint in Afghanistan had been cut short following a media leak about his deployment.
''I feel particular frustration that he was removed unexpectedly early because apart from anything else, he had been looking forward to coming back with the rest of his regiment,'' said Charles, who along with elder son William was present at the military airbase in Oxfordshire to greet the 23-year-old prince.
Charles said he was ''enormously proud'' of Harry, and he now understood what the families and loved ones of soldiers endured when they were serving abroad.
''As you can imagine it's obviously a great relief as far as I'm concerned to see him home in one piece,'' the Prince of Wales was quoted as saying by the British media.
Charles said, ''It's been quite difficult also having to keep quiet about the fact he was serving in that part of the world. People kept saying to me 'you must be so frustrated about Harry not being able to serve abroad'.''
''I also feel very strongly that we don't often appreciate what the people in the armed forces are doing, putting up with the most impossible conditions,'' he said.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, ''The whole country is going to be delighted that Prince Harry has come back safely.''
If I'm not mistaken, those interviews were done with the agreement that they would not be aired/printed until after Harry's scheduled completion of Afghani duty in April. The so-called Main-Stream-Media had been keeping their part of the bargain, which was in essence 'you keep mum until he's finished his tour there ... and as a reward, you'll get exclusive access.'
Harry was truly outed by Matt Drudge - one of FR's favorite lionized 'pajamahadeen' bloggers, who of course wasn't 'in on' the agreement. IMHO, this is an example of one of the potential downsides to 'alternative news'.
I'm sure that he'll be back in Afghanistan once again.
There’s at least one set of balls in Britain.
The media sucks. Word has it that “Bild” German, plus an Austrian pub reported this before Drudge sent it all over the net.
These media clowns need to serve walking point man.
In other words, unlike the Archbishop of Canterbury, he won't advocate that Britons just roll over and play dead.
Yes, I believe it was. Agree or disagree, it's what Drudge does best: leak.
Yep.
But he was only there for 10 weeks.
Was he on the John Kerry Plan?
His unit was supposed to leave April regardless so leaving one month of that isn’t too bad.
When the Australian and German media put out the ‘rumor’ that the prince was serving overseas, it was not treated as ‘truth.’ When Drudge put the word out, it went worldwide. This is sad that what Drudge does so well is not to exercize some self-discipline. The prince was doing what he should be doing. Drudge did not care about the prince’s life or the lives of other soldiers around the prince. Drudge got the scoop and won another little gold star in his record. A muckraker exposes what is evil, bad, and corrupt in order to improve things. Not so with Drudge.
People are all focusing on the Prince and forgeting what his acknowledged presence would to do all UK forces in the area...namely paint a huge target on them.
Publicly acknowledging that he is out of there precludes a supercharged round of Muzzie attacks.
You made a good point there. It’s unfortunate that Drudge has no integrity.
“I fail to see the good that today’s media does. It seems that all they do is leak important information like this on a daily basis.”
The British media and some other worldwide organisations had sat on this information for a couple of months as they had agreed to.
After a couple of mentions in low profile Australian and German magazines, it was the Drudge Report that leaked it worldwide and forced the MOD to abandon the plan.
“I saw the interviews he gave in afghanistan. TV & PRESS . If he was trying to keep a low profile he did a really crap job of it.......
Good on him for serving yet he has to understand the press is never to be trusted”
The organisations that did those interviews did not leak the information. The press did exactly as they promised, the worldwide leak came from an American website. The lesson really is that with the amount of internet coverage of everything now, its very hard to keep a secret just by getting the MSM onside. There’s always someone who’s willing to be totally irresponsible to get a scoop, and they’re often outside the traditional media these days.
Just saying.
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