Joi Ito's Web: Rumsfeld bans camera phones in Iraq

If this is true, it's absolutely crazy. A complete ban on digital cameras, camcorders, and camera phones? What about standard cameras? And across the entire military?

I can't seem to get to the text of the article or find reference on other news sites, though. It seems a bit overkill. Does this apply to reporters? UN inspection teams?

On the other side, is it actually a right in the military to be able to carry with your gear whatever you want, be it camera, PDA, game boy, notebook, etc?

It does seem like modes of taking pictures that could be leaked during war time actually could be a security problem if the enemy can gain knowledge from them.

Who knows...

Reiter's Camera Phone Report has an article about this, as well.

The part about "some of the photos from the prison abuse" being taking with camera phones is silly. The taking of pictures is well known to be a torture and threatening tactic (e.g. I'll give these pictures to your family if you don't talk.). The point being: it doesn't matter what they were taken with since they were taken, with or without permission, for interrogation purposes.

If this is true, it's a another case of misunderstanding technology. Especially since there is no mention of PDAs with cameras or standard cameras that can easily have photos scanned, etc.

Time will tell...

Posted by Shane on May 23, 2004 10:50 AM | Permalink