Lawsuit Forces Release of More Casualty Images

[Rose Siding]

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/2005/08/04/AR2005080401730.html

[enough]

1. Good. That is fitting. Now, about those other photographs. nt.

[dArKeR]

2. Steven Vincent assassinated - Warning Graphic

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/photo/2005/08/04/2005040114

[UpInArms]

3. here's a link to Begleiter's website

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB161/index.htm

[dArKeR]

4. Why are the faces blocked out on some pics?

[UpInArms]

5. they say that is to "protect their privacy"

:shrug:

Now honoring the dead is something that needs to be "shielded" from the public?