Black Tape & Other Ruses of War

Some of the craziest shit I’ve read on the web in a while, from Wikipedia:

In some cases, which international law accepts as a legitimate “ruse of war”, a direct action force may infiltrate to the target area in civilian clothes, but must make some distinguishing insignia visible before taking any combat actions. Had the hostage rescue force in Operation Eagle Claw actually moved into Tehran, they would have worn dark, nondescript clothing with American insignia under black tape. Before taking any combat action, they were to remove the tape.

Found this via an associative search method I use to navigate laterally through complex information sets. Started out with something like ranger: following through its cultural permutations from Tolkien to D&D to American, British and Irish ranger units - all subjects I was morbidly fascinated with at 13 years old. From there found the Australian bushranger tradition of robin-hoodian outlaw “social rebels” as they are called in social theory. Then a couple clicks later came to the above link and read through it with much surprise to find that passage. I’d like to see what the sourcing is on a statement like that, along with factual documentation, historical references.


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This entry was written by enjoying autumn, posted on April 13, 2009 at 4:28 pm.

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2 Comments

  1. 1 2 3
    Posted April 13, 2009 at 5:07 pm | Permalink

    A ruse of war (from the French, “ruse de guerre”) is an action taken by a belligerent in warfare to fool the enemy in order to gain intelligence or a military advantage against an enemy.

    http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/277198

  2. 1 2 3
    Posted April 13, 2009 at 5:11 pm | Permalink

    Holy crap, this is crazy!!

    German commando Otto Skorzeny led troops wearing American uniforms behind the American lines during the Battle of the Bulge. Skorzeny later reported that he was told by experts in military law that wearing the American uniforms was a defensible ruse de guerre, provided his troops took off their American uniforms, and put on German uniforms, prior to firing their weapons. Skorzeny was acquitted by a United States military court in Dachau in 1947, after his defense counsel argued that the “wearing of American uniforms was a legitimate ruse of war for espionage and sabotage” as described by “The New York Times”. [Staff. [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0E16F83E5E17738DDDA90994D1405B8788F1D3 "Court Holds Former SS Officer and Seven Aides Did Not Violate the Rules of War During Battle of Bulge"] , “The New York Times”, September 10, 1947. Accessed October 3, 2008.]

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