- WASHINGTON -- The photographs
that President George Bush does not want the American public to see show
the flag-draped coffins containing the bodies of American servicemen and
women - dying in Iraq at a rate of between four and six a day - being returned
to the US and to their families.
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- Aware of the power of these pictures and their potential
to inflict political damage on Mr Bush as he campaigns for re-election,
his chief political adviser, Karl Rove, is desperate that they should not
be published. Under a White House directive, the press has not been permitted
to photograph the return of such coffins for more than a year. But last
week 361 images of military coffins being returned to Dover air force base
in Delaware were released to an internet news site under the Freedom of
Information Act.
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- This week the Pentagon decided it should not have provided
the pictures after all, and barred further releases. "Quite frankly,
we don't want the remains of our service members who have made the ultimate
sacrifice to be the subject of any kind of attention that is unwarranted
or undignified," said John Moline, a deputy undersecretary of defence.
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- Almost 700 American troops and thousands of Iraqi civilians
and insurgents have been killed since the US-led operation to oust Saddam
Hussein began. From the US perspective at least, the past month has perhaps
been the deadliest, with about a hundred soldiers and marines being killed.
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- Mr Bush admitted this himself, saying recently there
was "no question it's been a tough, tough, tough series of weeks for
the American people". Despite this, Mr Bush has not yet attended a
single funeral service for any of those killed in Iraq something that
has outraged many of the families. Polls suggest that public approval of
the President's handling of the war and the occupation is down from 51
per cent to 44 per cent.
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- Since their release, the photographs have been published
prominently by newspapers and received widespread coverage by the television
networks triggering further debate about the war. Only Rupert Murdoch's
Fox News has declined to show the pictures or report any discussion about
the White House's decision to prevent their publication.
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- The images the White House wanted to censor were obtained
by Russ Kick, from Tucson, Arizona, who runs a website called The Memory
Hole (www.thememoryhole.org) and who filed a Freedom of Information Act
application. Air force officials denied the request but decided to release
the photos after Mr Kick appealed against their decision. Mr Kick was unavailable
for comment yesterday, but on his website he wrote: "These are the
images that the Pentagon prevented the public from seeing."
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- Controversy over such images was further fuelled by the
Seattle Times's decision to publish similar photographs on its front page
last Sunday.
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- Those pictures were taken in Kuwait by Tami Silicio,
who worked for a cargo aircraft contractor, Maytag Aircraft Corp, based
in Los Angeles.
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- Ms Silicio, 50, was fired by the company on Wednesday
after concerns were raised by military officials. The company's president,
William Silva, told the Seattle Times that while the decision to fire Ms
Silicio had been the company's, the US military had identified "very
specific concerns" about her actions. He declined to detail those
concerns.
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- Ms Silicio told ABC television: "I think if the
administration were more sympathetic, they would see that this is a positive
thing. [Family members] want to see how our loved ones, how our heroes,
are being taking care of and how they get home." The Pentagon says
it has barred publication out of respect to "families' feelings and
requests". But many relatives of soldiers who died in Iraq believe
the White House is trying to cover up what is happening there. Sue Niederer
said she was refused permission to see the return of her son Seth Dvorin's
body as it was flown into the Dover base. Lieutenant Dvorin, 24, from the
101st Airborne Division, was killed in February while trying to disarm
a roadside bomb, a task for which he was not trained.
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- Speaking from her home in New Jersey, Mrs Niederer said:
"They killed my son and they did not permit me to be there to see
the coffin. They said it was for health reasons, and ... they did not want
the public to see it and they did not want the newspapers there."
She added: "They don't want any of this being shown because it's reality.
A coffin strikes home. If you don't see the coffin you just say: 'Oh, there's
another one who has died.' But when you show the coffin, you show families,
you show people and emotions. This is what they are doing this is what
they do not want you to see."
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=514700
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