Pentagon releases 360 photos of soldiers' remains

[cyberpj]

Pentagon releases 360 photos

Images turned over a year after UD professor requests them
By VICTOR GRETO / The News Journal
04/28/2005

DOVER -- Just a short jet trail from the air force base where it all started, Ralph Begleiter announced Wednesday that the Department of Defense released to him and the National Security Archive 360 additional photographs of soldiers' remains as they were returned to U.S. bases, from Dover to Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.

Some photos also are of burials at sea.

Begleiter, the 55-year-old former CNN reporter who is in his fifth year of teaching broadcast journalism at the University of Delaware, made the announcement while speaking to several dozen members of the Delaware Council for the Social Studies at its annual awards banquet at the Lobby House, near downtown.

Begleiter showed the teachers one "heartstopper" photo in the newly released batch, which showed a line of sailors from the USS Enterprise from May 19 of last year releasing a metal casket into the sea.

The photo, however, had been released previously, and can be seen on a Navy news Web site. To date, Begleiter has received 721 photographs from the Pentagon, 361 that were previously released. The newest batch of 360 are heavily edited and include at least one photograph of flag-covered coffins in a convoy of Humvees moving through an undisclosed war zone.


http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2005/04/28pentagonrelease.html

[leveymg]

1. Try it later - server isn't responding. Either overwhelmed or taken down.

[cyberpj]

2. Wow. You're right. And I checked it twice w/no problem before posting.

I can't imagine it would be removed.
Oh.
Wait.
Yes I can.

[cyberpj]

5. I just tried again and it's there. eom.

[cyberpj]

7. - kick

[xynthee]

3. It's working now. n/t

[paineinthearse]

4. flag-covered coffins in a convoy of Humvees moving through an undisclosed

U.S. Department of Defense

A photo released by the U.S. Department of Defense this week shows a line of U.S. military Humvees transporting flag-draped body transfer cases. No location was supplied, the mountains in the background suggest the trucks are in Afghanistan.

[leveymg]

6. Kinda captures BushCo's on-the-cheap approach to Iraq, doesn't it?

Unarmoured Humvees carrying American corpses.

No wonder they waited until after the elections to release this.

Bastards.

[cyberpj]

8. Professor's rationale tops military's

Professor's rationale tops military's
By SEAN O'SULLIVAN / The News Journal
04/29/2005A University of Delaware professor's Freedom of Information lawsuit to get access to military photos of flag-draped remains at Dover Air Force Base was well-founded, some legal experts say.

When the government took photos of the boxes of remains being taken off planes, they became public documents, said Alice Neff Lucan, legal counsel for the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association.

And under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, there is no exemption for photos of remains, she said.

It would perhaps have been different if the remains were identifiable, Lucan said. Courts have placed limits on access to documents and other records that are seen as a personal invasion, like autopsy photos.

Some images of flag-draped remains were released in 2004 under a FOIA request but the Defense Department later said it was a mistake and refused to release more. Pentagon officials said the policy was designed to respect the privacy of the soldiers' families.

http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2005/04/29professorsratio.html

[cyberpj]

9. Lawsuit over war photos not over

Lawsuit over war photos not over
By VICTOR GRETO / The News Journal
04/29/2005

The recent release of 360 photographs of war casualties doesn't mean a lawsuit filed to obtain them is over, according to the attorney representing the University of Delaware professor who pressed for them to be made public.

Nor does the release of the photos signal a change in the military's practice of photographing the dead or its practice of keeping the photos private until it is ready to release them, a military spokesman said.

Questions still remain after the release of the photographs to Ralph Begleiter, a former CNN reporter, who filed the lawsuit in October.

Begleiter requested the video and photographs taken of the arrival and transfer of Iraq and Afghanistan war casualties at Dover Air Force Base. The base is home to the Department of Defense's only stateside mortuary. The lawsuit was filed under the Freedom of Information Act, which allows for public access to government documents.

"The lawsuit is not dismissed," said Meredith Fuchs, an attorney who helped Begleiter file the lawsuit.

http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2005/04/29lawsuitoverwarp.html

[cyberpj]

10. more: - Pentagon controls all photos now - no media allowed

Because no photos before a year ago were included in the recent release, Begleiter and Fuchs think that the Pentagon policy of photographing war casualties may have changed.

"If it turns out these are the last images of this kind, that makes them noteworthy," Begleiter said.

But Pentagon spokesman Col. Gary Keck said there have been no policy changes since 1991. He said pictures of war casualties still are being taken regularly for historical and practical purposes - to show how the remains should be handled on a particular airplane, for example.

Since the 1991 Gulf War, the Pentagon has banned the media from taking photographs of the dead when they are returned home to the United States. Exceptions are made for the families of those killed.

"We control those photos," he said. "They're not intended to be put in the paper."