The signals had been flashing for several days: The President and his military and civilian team of advisers will carry out a war against terrorism behind heavy curtains.

This CNN story put form to what's been lurking between the lines:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- America's "new war" against terrorism will be fought with unprecedented secrecy, including heavy press restrictions not seen for years, Pentagon sources said Monday.

Planning for possible military action has been "highly compartmentalized" to ensure the fewest number of people possible have access to classified war plans, the sources said.

According to Pentagon officials close to the process, the Bush administration has decided to clamp down on even routine information because it could prove of some use to potential terrorists.

"I want to make it clear to the American people that this administration will not talk about any plans we may or may not have," President Bush said Monday. "We will not jeopardize in any way, shape, or form anybody who wears the uniform of the United States."

In response to the attacks, the U.S. Defense Department has stopped posting on the Internet the general location of U.S. warships. The department's Web pages that show ship location haven't been updated since September 10, the day before hijacked airplanes struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

In addition, the Pentagon currently has no plans to allow reporters to deploy with troops, or report from warships, practices routinely carried out in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/17/ret.us.secret.war/

This is a huge change from war coverage of the past. It's not that the press and government have ever had an easy relationship in time of war. There have been ill feelings both ways. The CNN story, quoting Pentagon sources, makes it clear the press will face huge challenges in telling the public about the military angle of this ongoing story.

After the Gulf War, Pentagon and media officials adopted guidelines for both the military and the press. The status--or relevance--of those is certainly unclear today.

GUIDELINES

The American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Radio and Television News Directors Association played an integral part in negotiating and developing these guidelines that were adopted in March 1992.

Perspective on Media/Military Relationships

In the 1980s, the Department of Defense policy was "to make timely and accurate information available to the public, Congress, and the press and to provide the media access to cover U.S. military operations to the maximum degree possible consistent with mission security and safety of U.S. forces."

Department directives also emphasized the need for the combat commander and his/her staff to work closely with the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs and his/her staff in planning and "executing the most effective public affairs effort possible in each military operation."

The Defense Department issued detailed instructions to "provide support to the media in such areas as transportation, communications, messing (food), and emergency medical treatment and offers guidance in areas such as accreditation of reporters, reporting ground rules, and security review of news reports."

The Freedom Forum, in analysis of press access during wartime, said that during the1983 invasion of Grenada, coverage rules changed, partly because of the crush of journalists who showed up. As the operation commenced and 600 reporters arrived on Barbados, commanders were caught unprepared. Preoccupied with the demands of the operation, they reacted by denying reporters access to Grenada during the first two days of the conflict.

The Freedom Forum report said it was simply "too hard" to make plans to accommodate 600 reporters in the heat of battle. "A lack of planning, rather than an attempt to prevent news coverage of the conflict, caused the military's media failure in Grenada; their sin was one of omission rather than commission."

As a result of the protests that followed the Grenada coverage, the Pentagon began the National Media Pool, which got its first test in 1989, when the U.S. invaded Panama. Once again, the press got shut out of the first days of action, and as in Grenada, reporters and photojournalists were only able to cover the later stages of the operation, after the critical phase of the conflict was over.

When he was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell (now Secretary of State) told top military brass, "Commanders are reminded that the media aspects of military operations are important ... and warrant your personal attention. ... Media coverage and pool support requirements must be planned simultaneously with operational plans and should address all aspects of operational activity, including direct combat, medical, prisoner-of-war, refugee, equipment repair, refueling and rearming, civic action, and stabilization activities. Public Affairs annexes should receive command attention when formulating and reviewing all such plans."

But In Operation Desert Storm in 1990-91, the press still was kept bottled up, away from the front. Military leaders pointed out that Desert Storm was different from other wartime operations because victory depended on extremely fast movement of troops over wide spaces in the dark of night.

The military also was overwhelmed by the sheer number of local and national journalists from around the world who requested credentials to cover the Gulf War. The number grew as American television network affiliate services offered satellite uplink and editing stations for local affiliate use. For the first time, even the smallest TV stations could "go live" from the edge of the battlefield on the other side of the world.

"The first casualty of war is the truth," California Senator Hiram Johnson said in 1917, when the U.S. Entered WWI. In her book, Lights, Camera, War, Johanna Neuman writes, "Nearly every day military briefings informed a world audience that Scud-missile launch sites in Iraq had been destroyed. Nearly every day, Israelis got private intelligence that Iraqi launch sites were undamaged, having been moved during the night."

Neuman continues, "Journalism and war are both messy endeavors, with victory measured an inch at a time, and truth more often found at the front than at headquarters."

In 1992, following scathing criticism from news organizations about how the press had been controlled in the Persian Gulf War, news industry leaders and the Pentagon worked together to develop the Principles for News Media Coverage of DOD Operations, which were adopted in March 1992.

In December 1992, when Marines landed on the beaches of Mogadishu, Somalia, the only hostile groups they encountered were camera crews with blinding lights. The photographers were on the beachhead long before the Marines.