RETURN OF THE FALLEN - Page 2
To Cover Up Our Losses The Media
Was Forbidden
To Show Flag Draped Coffins. A Lawsuit Released The Images.
RETURN OF THE FALLEN
Thomas Blanton, Director of the National Security
Archive, which actively uses the Freedom of Information Act
to force release of government documents, said, "The
government now admits it was wrong to keep these images secret.
Hiding the cost of war doesn't make that cost any less. Banning
the photos keeps flag-draped coffins off the evening news,
but it fundamentally disrespects those who have made the ultimate
sacrifice."
Blanton and Begleiter noted one major negative
consequence of the dispute over the images: the Pentagon appears
to have stopped creating the photos in the first place. All
the released images containing date information appear to
have been taken prior to June 2004. Military officials told
Begleiter and the news media that such photos were no longer
being taken since his first Freedom of Information Act request
was filed in April 2004.
RETURN OF THE FALLEN
Begleiter said, "Hiding these images from
the public - or, worse, failing even to record these respectful
moments - deprives all Americans of the opportunity to recognize
their contribution to our democracy, and hinders policymakers
and historians in the future from making informed judgments
about public opinion and war." He called on the Pentagon
to resume fully documenting the return of American casualties.
Although some of the newly released images
include dates, locations and other information, the Pentagon
censored that information from most of the released images.
Some of the censorship, or, as the Pentagon prefers to call
it, "redaction," blacks out faces, identifying features
on equipment, and uniform styles. In one case, for example,
a clergyman's identity is censored, while in another image,
a different clergyman remains unredacted.
"I cannot imagine that the members of
these honor guards want their own faces blacked out from the
public homage that is due," Blanton said. "Honor
guard is the most solemn duty for anybody in the military,
not something for the censors to hide."
RETURN OF THE FALLEN
The photos released by the Pentagon were taken
by U.S. government photographers, not by journalists. "There
is nothing macabre or ghoulish about these images," said
Begleiter. "These are among the most respectful images
created of American casualties of war - far less wrenching
than images we regularly see from the battlefield. They're
taken under carefully controlled circumstances by military
photographers covering honor ceremonies."
An initial release of 361 such images was provided
by the Pentagon in April, 2004 in response to a Freedom of
Information Act appeal by Russ Kick, who maintains the web
site thememoryhole.org. The Pentagon later declared that release
to have been a mistake and refused to release further images,
which prompted Begleiter and the National Security Archive
to challenge the policy.
The Freedom of Information Act case was filed in Federal District
Court for the District of Columbia [Case No. 1:04-cv-01697
(EGS)].
The newly released images, along with many
other details of the Freedom of Information Act case, may
be seen at: www.nsarchive.org.
RETURN OF THE FALLEN
SOURCE OF ALL PHOTOS; NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE
Historical note:
The ban on media coverage of returning casualties was imposed by Defense Secretary Cheney after an embarrassing
incident in which three television networks broadcast live, split-screen images in December, 1989, as the
first U.S. casualties were returning from an American assault on Panama. In that incident, President Bush
was seen on television joking at a White House news conference while somber images of flag-draped coffins
arriving at Dover Air Force Base moved across viewers' screens. The ban on war casualty images was continued
during the Clinton administration, which made several exceptions to allow publication and broadcast upon
the return of victims of attacks against U.S. personnel abroad, including the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole
in 2000. President George W. Bush continued the ban following the start of the Afghanistan war in October,
2001 and the Iraq invasion in March, 2003.
THESE MATERIALS ARE REPRODUCED FROM WWW.NSARCHIVES.ORG WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE.
Home Page
|
