Marines to Resume Public Report of Deaths

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON - More than a month after it stopped publicly reporting individual Marine deaths in Iraq (news - web sites), the Corps' main headquarters there intends to resume the announcements, a spokeswoman said Thursday.



Col. Jenny Holbert, spokeswoman for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said it was decided that during the Fallujah offensive the Marines would stay silent until the Defense Department's public affairs office in Washington released identities of Marines killed. The names are not released in Washington until 24 hours after the victim's relatives are notified, a procedure that usually takes a few days.


Previously, the Marines would announce the fact of a death on the day it happened, without details. That practice ended sometime before the Fallujah offensive was launched Nov. 8.


"We decided not to issue press releases on a casualty because we did not want to aid the enemy in determining the success of their actions," Holbert wrote in an e-mail response to questions about the practice.

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&ncid=542&e=4&u=/ap/20041202/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/iraq_us_military

[Scrooge]

1. Who's deaths?

Will they also report the innocent victims deaths? No, that will never be truly known.

[htuttle]

2. "...sometime before the Fallujah offensive was launched Nov. 8"

Seems to me they started this sometime before the November 2 election, didn't they?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. You weren't supposed to notice that...

It was a coincidence that's all. Geeze, damn liberal elitist think they know everything. ;)

[rodeodance]

4. playing ping ping with troop deaths--pretty low!!

[daleo]

5. I wonder what the angle is here

I understand both their stated reasons (not to give info to the enemy) and their unstated reasons (to play things down during the election for Bush's sake). But why change the practice now?

The only thing I can think of, is some kind of inter-force rivalry - marines don't want to wait for anyone else's say-so, now that the election emergency is over.

[aikido15]

6. I don't get it...

If they publish the number of deaths, what's the identity have to do with aiding the enemy? Makes no sense unless I am missing something here.