They are our sons, our daughters, our brothers, our sisters, our mothers, our fathers, our nephews, our nieces, our aunts, our uncles, our neighbors, our community members. They are our Americans.
Cross-posted at DailyKos.
National Security Archive Update, April 28, 2005
RETURN OF THE FALLEN
Just In: Pentagon Releases Hundreds More War Casualty Homecoming Images || Freedom of Information Act Forces Opening of 360 New Photos || Confirms War Casualty Honor Ceremony Images Belong in Public
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The casket bearing the body of US Navy Machinist’s Mate Third Class Nathan Taylor goes over the edge of the USS Enterprise during a Burial at Sea ceremony.
Casket being handled on military aircraft with images of honor guard members completely obscured.
One image is redacted; the other copy — the same image — is not. To see the difference, you’ll need to click on each image and view the full-screen version:
At the National Security Archive Update site, you can view a Flash presentation of the images, and you can also download zipped copies of all of the images in high or low resolution.
About the effort by the National Security Archive:
One year after the start of a series of Freedom of Information Act requests filed by University of Delaware Professor Ralph Begleiter with the assistance of the National Security Archive, and six months after a lawsuit charging the Pentagon with failing to comply with the Act, the Pentagon made public more than 700 images of the return of American casualties to Dover Air Force Base and other U.S. military facilities, where the fallen troops received honor guard ceremonies. The Pentagon officially refers to the photos as “images of the memorial and arrival ceremonies for deceased military personnel arriving from overseas.” Many of the images show evidence of censorship, which the Pentagon says is intended to conceal identifiable personal information of military personnel involved in the homecoming ceremonies. …
There’s much more to the NSA Archive’s story.
We owe them a lot for doing this.
Moment of silence honored….
The idea of redacting the honor guard names and faces is bizarre. The men and women serving as honor guards do so to respect and honor the fallen.
We must also keep focusing a bright light on the administration hiding the impact of this war. We are the witnesses that must keep fighting to keep the memories of the fallen before the public.
Two questions:
Maybe I’ll do what BushCo was afraid of: take all of these photos and make a huge banner and hang it outside in a strategic location.
I wonder how much the dead-tree and broadcast media will cover this?
These Warmongers have to control everything – even grief and honor.
The Chickenhawks own shame and skeletons prevent them from realizing that these fallen men and women have nothing to hide and shouldn’t be hidden.
It’s a damn shame our country isn’t rioting in the streets over this media/grief control.
Thanks for the diary Susan!
One thing we can do:
Support the work of the NSA Archives’s constant FOIA work through contributions. Their work is essential. A quick trip around their site is fascinating.
Ok, my moment of silence is over. How in the hell do we fight a illegal war and then try to pretend no one gets killed? Answer me that Grasshopper.
Not being able to honor our dead is one of the more obscene things this fucked up administration is trying to perpetrate on the country..all for their own craven political reasons. Then trying somehow to make it sound like they are keeping pictures under wraps out of sympathy or whatever to the families is even more chickenshit and craven. Goddamn fuckers.
Even though I read dailywarnews and other info on casualties the pictures were like a punch to the gut. A picture really can be worth a thousand words.
How in the hell are we going to get the media to start doing their jobs and covering stories like this? As long as the general public think this is a basically bloodless war or doesn’t see pictures like this daily we’ll never get out of Iraq and we will go on to Iran..hey how hard could it be..we conquered Afghanistan and Iraq so lets just go ahead and take on Iran, right?