Manufacturing "Progress" in Iraq

The AFP:

Iraq's interior ministry has decided to bar news photographers and camera operators from the scenes of bomb attacks, operations director Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf said on Sunday (local time).

His announcement was the latest in a series of attempts to curtail press coverage of the ongoing conflict, which has already attracted criticism from international human rights bodies.

"There are many reasons for this prohibition," he said.

"We do not want evidence to be disturbed before the arrival of detectives, the ministry must respect human rights and does not want to expose victims and does not want to give terrorists information that they achieved their goals.

"This decision does not imply a curtailment of press freedom, it is a measure followed all over the world."

I'm sure that the Bush Administration was completely uninvolved in the nefarious and underhanded attempt to keep scenes of horrific destruction off of American TVs and out of American newspapers.

Between this new ban, the decision to no longer release civilian casualty counts, and removing bomb attack deaths from lists of deaths caused by sectarian violence
, progress in Iraq should be just around the corner.

Oh, and since death squad killings are sky-rocketing, we better find a way to get a lid on that problem too...

Iraq Bombings News Media War in Iraq Death Squads