You may recall that early last year, Prince Harry cracked the sooks because there was talk the British Army wouldn't let him go to the front line, fearing his "fame" would make him a target for a kidnapping or murder; his response at the time was the very princely, "There's no way I'm going to put myself through Sandhurst and then sit on my arse back home while my boys are out fighting for their country."

Well, it turns out he did get his wish, but those clowns at New Idea thought they'd join forces with a gaggle of other questionable news portals and break the embargo agreed upon by the Army and the press, letting all and sundry know where Harry is, and what he's doing there.

Prince Harry has been fighting the Taliban on the front line in Afghanistan, the defence ministry in London said overnight.

The 23-year-old prince, an officer in the Household Cavalry regiment, has spent the past 10 weeks secretly serving in the volatile southern province of Helmand, where most of Britain's troops are based.

His deployment makes him the first British royal to be sent on active military service in nearly 26 years, when his uncle, Prince Andrew, flew Royal Navy helicopters during the Falklands War with Argentina in 1982.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) had kept the young royal's deployment secret under a news blackout agreed by British media to prevent details reaching insurgents and endangering the prince and his comrades.

But the arrangement broke down after news was leaked out on the US website, the Drudge Report, which said that the Australian magazine New Idea and the German tabloid Bild were the first to break a world embargo.

So, assuming high-ranking Taliban operatives are all New Idea subscribers (and let's face it, what insurgents of questionable moral fibre aren't), then when Harry comes home in a box we know who to blame.

At least Terri Irwin and Lleyton Hewitt will go in fighting for his honour - they, too, hate New Idea!

 

Tags: au | new idea | prince harry | taliban | war