peripathetic

Operation Iraqi Freedom vs. Operation Information Freedom
"Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets.
To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead soldiers' homecomings on all military bases."
So says The Washington Post.

The Memory Hole had previously hosted the first 3 images to break the embargo, and as soon as its webmaster heard about the ban, he fired off a Freedom of Information Act request, for any and all photos of such ceremonies from February 1 2003 onwards, to the US's Dover Air Force Base. This was rejected.

"Not taking 'no' for an answer, I appealed on several grounds, and?to my amazement?the ruling was reversed. The Air Force then sent me a CD containing 361 photographs of flag-draped coffins and the services welcoming the deceased soldiers.

Score one for freedom of information and the public's right to know."

To which I'd add: This does not squash the importance or honour of the individual dead soldiers under the democratic necessity of freedom of information. I'd say it actually highlights the importance of the soldiers' lives and our awareness of their deaths. The Pentagon-inspired idea that we shouldn't see these photos for reasons of decency is, in part, a mask for its real motivation: to keep actual US deaths - in an occupation of a country which now can't bear the US's presence - far from the public mind.

PS. A lot of these photos aren't particularly *good*, but if the issue is at all important to you, you should know where they are.