No credit where credit is due -- interesting NYT byline

This byline today stopped me, to say nothing of the story, and I'm curious be/c it's something I've never seen before quite like this... Obviously, pen names have been conjured in the past to circumvent, but curious for people's insights on the context or precedent for this kind of byline.

Mass Burials Held in Damascus Suburb Amid Army Crackdown
By an EMPLOYEE of THE NEW YORK TIMES in SYRIA and DAMIEN CAVE
Published: August 26, 2012

DARAYA, Syria — Mass burials in this Damascus suburb on Sunday showed the carnage of the past few days in gruesome detail: scores of bodies lined up on top of each other in long thin graves moist with mud.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/world/middleeast/dozens-of-bodies-are-found-in-town-outside-damascus.html?hp

 

I believe it is common practice of The New York Times to withhold a byline when the reporter is in an area where identifying his or her presence could lead to him or her being injured or killed.

 

In most union shops, the members have the right to remove their byline if they choose -- typically over a dispute with management. I once saw an editor throw a Titanic shit fit after a reporter said she was taking her byline off a story.

But, the Times could be protecting his identity in Syria I suppose.

 

A couple years ago when there was civil unrest in Myanmar, the AP was not crediting photographs and stories as a safety measure to the journalists there. I'd be willing to bet the same thing is applicable here.

 

The BBC does something similar for its people in harms' way.

 

A Japanese journalist was killed last week and an American who was freelancing for McClatchy has been missing for that long. I'm sure this byline policy is standard procedure now.

 

The New York Times does this all the time, it's just rare for it to be in a double byline, where they'd draw attention to it. I think, in a single byline, they put "The New York Times" and then explain in a contributing line.

 

Washington Post and Wall Street Journal are doing the same basic thing.