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During And After The Pentagon’s "Mask Ban"

December 9, 2008

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News:

“Iraq translators’ mask ban dropped” (BBC: “The Pentagon has rescinded a controversial decision that banned Iraqi interpreters working for US troops in Baghdad from protecting their identities by wearing ski-masks. The ban was meant to reflect the improved security situation – in which interpreters were no longer afraid of retaliation. But that is not the case.”)

Behind that news:

“The debt we owe Iraqi interpreters” (Michael Breen, a former Army captain who served with the infantry in Iraq and helps lead the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, describes why “after the foolish mask ban, more protection is a must.”)

Before that news:

“Military To Interpreters: Drop Dead” (George Packer wrote that in enforcing the ban the U.S. military was “standing on a principle in the shape of a land mine.”)

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Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.