Prince Harry's Afghanistan Deployment Kept Secret from Public

The news has leaked that Prince Harry has been serving with an army unit in Afghanistan for the past few months, forcing him to return home.

According to the Associated Press, several news organizations agreed to keep the news of Prince Harry's deployment from the public in order to protect him and his fellow soldiers. The informal agreement was broken Thursday when the Drudge Report Web site broke the surprising news.

Prince Harry has been in southern Afghanistan since mid-December and was supposed to stay until April. British authorities made the decision Friday to pull Harry out of Afghanistan after the international news had been made public.

The Associated Press explained its reasoning behind its decision to keep the news private by stating that journalists do not report on troop movements or military tactics, to avoid putting soldiers at risk.

News organizations did not promise to keep a big secret for nothing. In return for their cooperation, complete interviews, videos and pictures were taken of the prince and his fellow soldiers. All the footage was agreed to be made available as soon as Prince Harry's whereabouts became public knowledge.