Pentagon expels reporter from Iraq

An American freelance journalist has been ordered out of Iraq by the Pentagon for revealing the location of a Marine unit during a television interview.

Philip Smucker, a freelance reporter for the Boston-based Christian Science Monitor and The Daily Telegraph of London, was not embedded with a military outfit but joined the First Marine Division on Sunday along with a Monitor photographer.

Smucker reported the unit’s location about 60 miles south of Baghdad during an interview on CNN on Wednesday morning, according to the Pentagon.

“My understanding of the facts at this point from the commander on the ground is that this reporter was reporting, in real time, positions, locations, and activities of units engaged in combat,” SAID Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

“The commander felt it was necessary and appropriate to remove (Smucker) from his immediate battle space in order not to compromise his mission or endanger personnel of his unit.”

Monitor editor Paul Van Slambrouck wrote in an editorial that Smucker did not reveal anything that was not already available.

“We have read the transcript of the CNN interview and it does not appear to us that he disclosed anything that wasn’t already widely available in maps and in US and British radio, newspaper, and television reports in that same news cycle,” he wrote.

Smucker, 41, an American based in Cairo, is an experienced war correspondent who has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia and Cambodia for a variety of publications. He will be reassigned within the region, the Monitor said.

The Monitor has not heard from Smucker since Wednesday when Marines began escorting him back to Kuwait, but do not believe he is in any danger, Monitor spokesman Jay Jostyn said.