BBC tries to report on troop movements in latest offensive

Telegraph:

The BBC was accused last night of risking the safety of British forces in Iraq after trawling for information on troop movements in the war-torn country.

Politicians reacted in disbelief to the revelation that for over two hours yesterday, the BBC News website carried a request for people in Iraq to report on troop movements.

The request was removed from the website after it sparked furious protests that the corporation was endangering the lives of British servicemen and women.

But according to accounts last night, a story on a major operation by US and Iraqi troops against al-Qa'eda somewhere north of Baghdad contained an extraordinary request for information about the movement of troops.

Last night the BBC confirmed the wording of the request was: "Are you in Iraq? Have you seen any troop movements? If you have any information you would like to share with the BBC, you can do so using the form below."

The BBC confirmed last night that this form of words had appeared on the website from "late morning" until early afternoon.

"It was down by 2pm," The Daily Telegraph was told.

A spokesman was unable to offer a detailed explanation of why anyone at the BBC should be seeking such information or whether any details on troop movements had been received.

He refused to identify who put the message up but said that "the journalist" responsible had been reminded that "this is not a form of words we would use".

However, in a statement, the BBC added: "BBC Online regularly asks visitors to its websites to supply information they may have relating to a specific story through a response form posted at the end of a news item.

...

The BBC insisted last night that the information would not have been published, saying "this was not a blog".

But the woman went on: "Surely if you want reporting done, you have staff who are able to do that for you. Otherwise why do we pay over £100 in licence fees?"

Another wrote: "Did you realize that the BBC are now helping insurgents in northern Iraq with their intelligence?"

The BBC is made up of liberals so it is not surprising they would be ignorant of the assistance they are offering the enemy. While they put out similar request for people to send information when natural disasters occur such as hurricane Katrina providing troop movements of an attacking force is an incredible lack of judgment.

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