Pentagon fury at pictures of servicemen coffins

[WhiteCrowUK]

I have included the image here - I hope this offends no-one. Personally I would say I am shocked (but not offended) as it makes me aware of the loss of life. Its easy to hear "12 soldiers died today" - to see the coffins puts it into context on a human scale.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3652171.stm

Pentagon fury at war dead photos


The Pentagon says the ban is to protect soldiers' families
The Pentagon has reacted angrily to the publication on US websites of photos of America's war dead arriving home.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40072000/jpg/_40072901_1coffins20 3afp.jpg

Defence officials had banned publicity of the return of bodies from Iraq, but were forced to release images after a freedom-of-information court action.

Photos of coffins at the main military mortuary appeared on the web, prompting a Pentagon information crackdown.

Meanwhile, a US cargo worker has been fired after her photo of flag-draped coffins was used by a US newspaper.

Tami Silicio, 50, was dismissed by military contractor Maytag Aircraft Corp after she sent the photo to a friend who, with her permission, gave it to The Seattle Times for publication.

Since the beginning of the war, the media has been banned from Dover Air Force base in Delaware - the US military's largest mortuary - where the coffins of American soldiers have been arriving.

But photographs of flag-draped coffins were released last week to activist Russ Kick, who filed a Freedom of Information Act request to receive the images.

Renewed ban

After Mr Kick posted more than 350 photographs on his website, the memoryhole.org, the Pentagon barred further release of the images to media outlets.

"The photos will not be released through Air Force channels," said Air Force spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Jennifer Cassidy, who added that requests for their release could be made under the same act.

US TROOPS IN IRAQ
135,000 US troops in Iraq
Tour of duty extended for 20,000
87 US soldiers killed in April (and hundreds of Iraqis, unofficial sources say)
Nearly 600 US troops killed since 1 May 2003


Camera ban on US war dead
"They're not happy with the release of the photos," said Dover Air Force base spokesman Col Jon Anderson of the Pentagon.

Defence officials said the purpose of the ban was to protect the privacy of soldiers' families.

"Quite frankly, we don't want the remains of our service members who have made the ultimate sacrifice to be the subject of any kind of attention that is unwarranted or undignified," John Molino, a deputy undersecretary of defence, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

But the practice is widely criticised.

"We need to stop hiding the deaths of our young," said Jane Bright of California, who lost a son in combat last year. "We need to be open about their deaths."

[YoungFang]

They still show gunfighting against the terroist's and Iraqi's right? And their injured and dead? Seems to me it's rather selective way of proganda. War isn't pretty you can't hide it's ugly side.

[Edwardo_son_of_haqim]

They still show gunfighting against the terroist's and Iraqi's right? And their injured and dead? Seems to me it's rather selective way of proganda. War isn't pretty you can't hide it's ugly side.

Exactly all we ever see is a dead/rioting/gun-toting Iraqi.
We can see a burnt and blacked corpse of an Iraqi child but not the coffin of a soldier who choose to be there!

[kat]

April 23, 2004
Bob Jacobs
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1600)

NOTE TO EDITORS: n04-059

COLUMBIA CREW MISTAKENLY IDENTIFIED AS IRAQI WAR CASUALTIES (http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/apr/HQ_n04059_columbia_d over.txt)

Many news organizations across the country are mistakenly identifying the flag-draped caskets of the
Space Shuttle Columbia's crew as those of war casualties from Iraq.

Editors are being asked to confirm that the images used in news reports are in fact those of
American casualties and not those of the NASA astronauts who were killed Feb.1, 2003, in the
Columbia tragedy.

An initial review of the images featured on the Internet site www.thememoryhole.or g (http://www.thememoryhole.or g) shows that more
than 18 rows of images from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware are actually photographs of honors
rendered to Columbia's seven astronauts.

News organizations across the world have been publishing and distributing images featured on the web
site.

[kat]

1

[WhiteCrowUK]

Sad but true Kat - its too easy to measure this conflict in tax dollars and not in lives lost.

[DeadDoll]

This whole issue with the coffin pictures really pissed me off, I thought that it was so stupid. 2 weeks ago my cousin Chris, was killed in Iraq, from a r.p.g. and his body was blown to nothing basically. I found nothing wrong with those pictures, all they showed were the draped coffins, not the bodies. Personally, I took some comfort in seeing pictures of Honor Guards saluting the caskets. Atleast they we're being treating with the respect that they deserve. Alot of family members of other soliders killed in action felt the same way.
I think that it was also unfair for the government to fire the husban of the women that took the pictures, because he had nothing to do with it.

[LV426]

So what is the government trying to hide? Are the numbers posted about the deaths being kept at a minimum? What about soldiers that have no one waiting at home are their deaths being recorded?

While many are using the ban on military coffin pictures as a breeding ground for conspiracy theories it makes me think a bit.
Who is being protected by no showing photos? Are they worried that if people suddenly realize that the war is real they will get upset?

Well you should be fucking upset. Get upset and shake the foundation that sits under Bush's ass and speak your mind instead of parroting the media and the politicians. The government doesn't like war to be up front, they don't want people to see it, they want it to remain in the back of people's minds and hope that no one actually realizes that people are dying.


Now mind you, the war is over, we are there as a clean up crew, so why are so many people dying in a war that isn't a war but an operation take out the trash? Is anyone questioning this? We are using more money, and more live, and more equipment, for something that is supposed to be over. We are supposed to be aiding a war ravaged country but amazingly enough these poor little people that we are supposed to rescue, are killing U.S Soldiers by the handful.

The handfulls are adding up people!

The money, the people, the time, the energy, it's all adding up, bit by bit, penny by penny, life by life. So don't think it's coffins that they don't want people to see, don't think it is the families that they are trying to protect, don't think that it's the dignity of the fallen soldier. It's their own fucking asses that they are trying to cover when the people wake up and realize that the land of milk and honey is the land of shit filled twinkies and everyone has just taken a bite.


Just a little FYI:

More than 700 American servicemen and women have died in the Iraq war, including at least 100 in combat this month.

The policy of no photos of caskets was established in 1991 at Dover Air Force Base, which handles the remains of most U.S. troops who die overseas. The policy wasn't enforced strictly until the Iraq war, a Defense Department spokeswoman told The Washington Post last October.


Previous administrations were not consistent. President George H.W. Bush allowed media coverage of dead Americans returning to the U.S. from Panama and other conflicts but banned it at Dover during the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The Clinton administration released photographs at Dover after the 2000 terrorist attack on the USS Cole.

[WhiteCrowUK]

Its all a propaganda war isnt it? If some soldiers were killed in a remote country and the President (any not just this one) wanted to go to war, you can bet there would be pictures of the coffins arriving home. Heck it would probably be broadcast live!

I think the problem with the pictures is it makes the conflict more real. They keep saying "this is not another Vietnam" - but the pictures sure make it look like it. Heaven forbid anyone would think that in election year!!!