US lifts censorship of dead soldiers' return

[ECH1969]

The Pentagon has released a group of uncensored photographs of Iraq war dead and promised to process media requests for similar releases "as expeditiously as possible" in the future.

More than two dozen images have been released to the National Security Archives and posted on the group's web site.

The images show flag-draped coffins being carried off military aircraft by honour guards, and several shots of a burial at sea.

On Thursday, they announced they had dropped their lawsuit after the Pentagon agreed to process Freedom of Information Act requests for the release of such images "as expeditiously as possible".

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1431726.htm

[Up2Late]

1. Wow! Somebody call the ACLU! I'm sure they'll enjoy hearing this!

And someone e-mail Russ Kick at "The Memory Hole" and Alex at "DisInfo", they've been fighting this for a long time too.:woohoo: :applause:

[Sabriel]

2. Tomorrow's headline: "Dead Soldiers? What Dead Soldiers?" n/t

[Up2Late]

8. Hold ON, something Screwy going on here! This ABC is Australian...

Broadcasting Corporation, and the story is credited to AFP, which is usually AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE (the French Newswire), BUT, It's NOT at the AFP site! WTF? :wtf:

Here's the AFP Link: <http://www.afp.com/english/news/?pid=stories>

and the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) site:

<http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1431726.htm>

And I've also been a little more than suspicious of ABC/AU in the past.

We may need to hold the excitement until we see another Newswire or Major Newspaper before we get excited.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. There are lots of other reports of this

http://news.google.co.uk/news?hl=en&ned=&ie=UTF-8&ncl=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0508050173aug05,1,5656737.story%3Fcoll%3Dchi-newsnationworld-hed

The AFP link you gave only lists 10 stories. So that just means this one isn't in their current top 10.

Why are you suspicious of the Australian Broadcasting Corp? It seems more honest than most American broadcasters, to me.

[Up2Late]

20. Oh, O.K. I see what the problem is, this was an Older story...

...Looks like it first broke on AUgust 4th, 2005

[countingbluecars]

3. Could this be to counter the prison

photos should they be released?

[newscott]

6. I think they are cynically using this as flak for all their

burgeoning scandals. Should fill a solid week of newsfootage at least. Just a minute or two at a time, but it all adds up.

[Miss Chybil]

7. This is in response to a lawsuit they couldn't win.

"The National Security Archives had joined Ralph Begleiter, a University of Delaware professor and former CNN reporter, in a lawsuit to gain release of images of honour guard ceremonies taken by military photographers."

[madeline_con]

12. No, it's to make us forget about them.

Another distraction....

[ConfuZed]

4. The election is over no one is going to care to publish them anymore

*sigh*

[Rebellious Republican]

5. Change of strategy for Bushco, poll numbers are down!

Now they can get some mileage out of the sympathy for those brave patriots.

They will be waving the flag and oh yeah lets not forget, 911, War on Terra, Weapons of Mass Destruction and 911, War on Terra.

And wave the flag some more and oh yeah, 911, War on Terra, Weapons of Mass Destruction. :sarcasm:

[krkaufman]

9. Remember that they're not looking to pull the troops out...

... prior to the 2006 mid-terms, so they're now less concerned about keeping the myth of the war going. Plus, they probably figure there aren't many persuadables left to lose; they're already down to their radical base.

[warrens]

10. Stonewall to the end, then pretend it was your idea all along

God, I hate these nazis. Treason is a death crime and I want to see the entire White House thug gang hang.

[tuckessee]

11. The images are still "censored" ---- by the flag.

The US gov't and mainstream media are still hiding the true picture of the war by not showing images of dead American soldiers unless they are embalmed, sealed in a casket and festooned with Old Glory.

The Iraq War is almost 28 months old and still Americans are too weak to handle seeing graphic images of in situ fresh, ugly combat deaths.

During WW2 it only took 20 months before the first such images were released when a Sept. 1943 Life Magazine published George Strock's famous shot of maggot ridden US corpses on Buna beach.

I think denial is America's national pastime, not baseball.

[Fire Walk With Me]

21. There's the rub. They're wrapping the issue in the US Flag.

An appeal for patriotism. They're canny. And scummy. Now they're using dead soldiers as an appeal for support...

[anarchy1999]

14. "as expeditiously as possible". What does that mean in real terms?

n/t

[teryang]

15. 15 days

That was my understanding when I was in the government.

[anarchy1999]

16. Oh. Thanks for posting, I still don't get "it".

n/t

[annabanana]

17. maybe the uproar in Ohio from the families

of the latest casualties has rettled them..

[rodeodance]

18. "as expeditiously as possible". --at a mile an hour.

[rodeodance]

19. here is the story from WaPost posted yesterday on DU.

Lawsuit Forces Release of More Casualty Images

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 5, 2005; Page A03

In response to a lawsuit, the Pentagon has released a few dozen new and uncensored images of flag-draped coffins of U.S. troops and agreed to process "as expeditiously as possible" future Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for photo and video images of returning war casualties.

The decision was called a victory for open government by the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental research group here that helped the litigation. "We forced the Pentagon to admit that release of these images was not a mistake but was in fact required by law," said Thomas Blanton, director of the archive, which posted the images on its Web site yesterday. As a result, he said the parties to the suit agreed July 28 to dismiss the case.

University of Delaware professor Ralph Begleiter sued in October 2004, and in April the Pentagon released 721 images of coffins taken by military photographers in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. The latest release includes five new images as well as 27 others that had been censored with black rectangles, obscuring the faces of chaplains and service members in honor ceremonies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...