Numerous stories are circulating on the Web regarding reports that US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has banned the use of cameraphones by soldiers in Iraq - but, is it really true? From Tuesday's The Register:

Peter Rojas points out in Engadget, it was not actually a mainstream news source which first reported Rumsfeld as saying: "To protect the Iraqi prisoners from any future abuses; any digital cameras, camcorders, or cell phones with cameras are strictly prohibited anywhere in any military compound in Iraq." That statement was actually a satirical story from The Daily Farce.

Now, a series of other reports and comments have followed, suggesting that reality may have imitated comedy. Over the weekend, several news items appeared, which seem to quote Rumsfeld, but actually use the phrase from The Daily Farce word for word. The report on iAfrica quoted Australian newspaper The Business - as did News.com in Australia, and The Washington Times.

Interestingly, while the cameraphone ban story appears on many news outlets [via Google News], the individual stories mainly cite the earlier reports cited in the above Register article. So, where is this story coming from? A May 12th op-ed piece by Chicago Tribune's Clarence Page, detailing some comments by Rumsfeld about the ready availability of digital photography is telling:

Take, for example, the contempt that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld showed for the cameras during recent hearings on Capitol Hill. His response to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) turned into a bit of a rant: "We're functioning in a--with peacetime restraints, with legal requirements in a wartime situation, in the Information Age, where people are running around with digital cameras and taking these unbelievable photographs and then passing them off, against the law, to the media, to our surprise, when they had not even arrived in the Pentagon."

The rather unattractive timing of the still-questionable story has prompted snide commentary and extrapolated speculation, such as DMEurope's "Rummy Bans Camera Phones, Not Torture":

According to a report in UK newspaper The Business, camera phones have been banned from all American forces installations in Iraq on orders from the secretary. The paper quotes a source at the Pentagon who said that all digital cameras, camcorders and camera phones have been prohibited in military compounds in Iraq, and that a complete ban on such devices throughout the US military is under consideration.

The $64,000 Question is: who is the Pentagon source quoted in The Business? I have been unable to actually find The Business, cited as a UK or Australian paper, anywhere online. Why are several media outlets quoting this elusive accounting? If anyone knows a link to the original camera ban story in The Business, we'd be most interested. On a related note, there are various proposed non-military bans on cameraphone use in the works. From MSNBC.com:

[Reuters] May. 12 - The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill...that would outlaw "upskirt" photos and other forms of video voyeurism made possible by cell-phone cameras and other miniaturized technology.

The bill, which passed the Senate last September, would prohibit taking covert pictures in locker rooms, bedrooms and other places where people have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Violators would face fines and up to a year in prison under the Video Voyeurism Prevention Act, which passed the committee by voice vote. Lawmakers say cell-phone cameras and tiny surveillance devices allow peeping toms to secretly take pictures in compromising situations. Pornographic Web sites advertise "upskirt" pictures of unsuspecting women on escalators or other public places.

Is this entire story conflated from a combination of satire and truth? BoingBoing has some useful continuing updates.

UPDATE: BoingBoing reports that The Business is also known by the name Sunday Business, and I did find a link at http://www.sundaybusiness.co.uk/. Unfortunately, the link is presently having some timeout problems.

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