Journalists in Israel are required to submit articles related to security and military issues to the censor, which can make changes to stories or bar publication altogether. In a rare move, the censor's office issued a special directive about the Syrian air raid, specifically prohibiting publication of any details. Violation of the censorship orders can result in the loss of press credentials or other sanctions. (Sounds like the USSR to me...) Full story below: Army confirms IAF carried out September 6 air strike in Syria JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST Oct. 2, 2007 Israel on Tuesday began to lift its strict veil of secrecy on an air strike in Syria last month, allowing the media to report on the raid without attributing such reports to foreign sources. The censor did not release any other details for publication. Israel has kept quiet on the subject until now. However, Syrian President Bashar Assad told the BBC on Monday that IAF jets had hit an "unused military building" in his country. Assad said Israel's air raid on northern Syria showed Israel's "visceral antipathy towards peace," according to excerpts posted on the BBC's Web site. The comments were the first by the Syrian leader about the incursion, which raised speculation that warplanes had hit weapons headed for Hizbullah or even a nascent nuclear installation - reports Damascus has repeatedly denied. Journalists in Israel are required to submit articles related to security and military issues to the censor, which can make changes to stories or bar publication altogether. In a rare move, the censor's office issued a special directive about the Syrian air raid, specifically prohibiting publication of any details. Violation of the censorship orders can result in the loss of press credentials or other sanctions. Although Israel did not come out with an official statement following the incident, Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu broke the silence two weeks afterwards when he said he had congratulated Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on the strike. In an interview with Channel 1, Netanyahu said that he was "part of the matter from the beginning" and that he knew to separate matters of national security from politics. The overflight was first reported on Syrian television just after the attack, and various reports regarding the strike's target have circulated in the press over the past month. The Washington Post reported that the target had been a facility involved in a joint Syrian-North Korean nuclear project - a claim backed by former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton. Britain's Sunday Times, meanwhile, reported just over a week ago that soldiers from the IDF's elite General Staff Reconnaissance Unit (Sayeret Matkal) had seized North Korean nuclear material from a secret Syrian military installation before it was bombed by IAF jets. The paper claimed that the IAF attack on September 6 was sanctioned by the US after the Americans were given proof that the material was indeed nuclear-related. It also stated that Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who used to head the unit, personally oversaw the operation. However, Syrian officials have repeatedly called news of the strike lies and fabrications, and on Monday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem accused the US of inventing these reports. "Some sources in the United States have spread rumors and fabricated news in order to justify this act of aggression," Moallem charged. "By distorting the facts they have become Israel's accomplices in this act of aggression." Speaking to the UN, Moallem said the act was proof that the Jewish state wanted to escalate tensions. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1191257212152&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer
The Office of Censorship was an emergency wartime agency set up on December 19, 1941 to aid in the censorship of all communications coming into and going out of the United States. Employee Pin of WWII US War Service, Office of CensorshipGovernment records show that the First War Powers Act, approved on December 18, contained broad grants of Executive authority for the prosecution of the war, including a provision for censorship. The next day President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8985, which established the Office of Censorship and conferred on its director the power to censor international communications in "his absolute discretion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Censorship PS Just a reminder for ignoramuses, Israel is at war...
What a dumbass comment. The US was "at war" with the Soviet Union for how many years? The evil empire? Yet, we had freedom of the press the entire time. We lambasted the Soviets for their control of the press and media in Soviet Union. Ever hear of radio free Europe which was to give an alternative supposedly truthful new source to the eastern block? Israel behaves like a fascist country controlling the press, that's why it sounds just like the USSR. Man, the neocons will rationalize anything in the name of their agendas, even censorship of a free media and foreign spies in our own government as necessary. Face it, Israel and their supporters are often anti-American in many of its practices. Why do you hate America so much that you support such anti-American practices?
Unlike the USSR Israel censors military matters only. When we were at war we did the same thing (and more) as I demonstrated in my previous post. Israel has been in a state of war since its creation in 1948 and is surrounded by 20+ hostile countries with combined population of 400+ million people.
BTW What's your problem with the Soviet Union. Haven't you always been an apologist for Stalin, Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Assad and all other anti-western tyrannical regimes/dictators...?
Only the Zzztroll moonbat brigade could make this statement. The Zzztroll's definition of justified armed response? Anyone who wishes to kill Israelis or Americans.
Since I opposes fascism and control, fundamentalism and totalitarian thought, your statement is more of the paranoid delusion at work. Your response is typical or the paranoid delusional when they are confronted with the reality of their paranoia having no logical foundation, they then project their own delusion and paranoia onto others and attack those who have continually made statements to the contrary of what they are suggesting is reality. Apparently you are proud to support a country that emulates the USSR in their attempting to control the press...