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Casket photos released after mixup in military Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/nation/8502258.htmhttp://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/nation/8502258.htm
Posted on Fri, Apr. 23, 2004
Casket photos released after mix-up in military
By Blaine Harden, Dana Milbank and Josh White
Washington Post
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon lost its tight control over the images of caskets returning from Iraq as about 350 such images were released under the Freedom of Information Act, and a Seattle newspaper published a similar photo taken by a military contractor.
After Dover (Del.) Air Force Base, the main port for returning remains, released hundreds of government photos of the ceremonies, the Defense Department ordered Thursday no more photos be released.
In addition, two employees for defense contractor Maytag Aircraft were fired after the Pentagon complained about a photo of flag-draped caskets taken by one of them appeared in the Seattle Times.
In March 2003, on the eve of war in Iraq, the Pentagon ordered an end to all media coverage of ceremonies for the returning remains of soldiers killed overseas. Although Dover already had such a policy, the Pentagon action enforced a militarywide ban on images of flag-draped caskets that dated from late 2000 but had not been followed.
With few exceptions, the ban had remained in force until recent days. But last week, about 350 photos from Dover were released under a Freedom of Information Act request by Russ Kick, a First Amendment advocate who runs a Web site called the Memory Hole, www.thememoryhole.org. Dover had recommended that Kick's request be denied, but officials at Air Mobility Command headquarters at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois authorized the release on appeal. After Kick posted the photos, they appeared on other Web sites, including the Drudge Report.
The sudden spread Thursday of the Dover photos of flag-draped caskets returning from Iraq came a day after Tami Silicio and her husband and co-worker, David Landry, were fired for the photo she took at Kuwait International Airport of caskets in an aircraft. The photo was published Sunday on the front page of the Seattle Times.
According to the Times, William Silva, president of Maytag Aircraft, the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based military contractor that employed Silicio and her husband, said the firing decision was made by the company, but the military had "very specific concerns" about the photo.
Silicio, a cargo worker who loaded caskets on military planes bound for the United States, shot the photo in early April. She told her best friend that her photograph of caskets of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq would allow parents of the dead to see that "their children weren't thrown around like a piece of cargo."
Losing her well-paid job in Kuwait was something that Silicio had been worried about before the photo was published, according to Barry Fitzsimmons, a photo editor at the Times, who said he had a dozen phone conversations and exchanged 40 e-mails with Silicio before the photo was published.
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