Washington,
D.C., 4 October 2004
- Journalism
professor Ralph Begleiter of the University of Delaware today
filed suit
under the Freedom of Information Act in federal district court
for copies of the military's photographs and video of the honor
guard arrival and transfer ceremonies at Dover Air Force Base
for servicemen and women killed in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
The lawsuit challenges the censorship
policy initiated in 1991 by then-Secretary of Defense
Richard Cheney, and continued by the Pentagon under the Clinton
and Bush Administrations. The 1991 policy reversed the traditional
American practice of honoring the fallen in solemn public ceremonies
centered on flag-draped caskets. In April 2004, the Air Force
Mobility Command released under the Freedom of Information Act
361 photographs
of recent Dover ceremonies, only to have the Defense Department
call the action a mistake and hold up any further releases. A
Department of Defense Spokesperson, Deputy Under Secretary of
Defense for Military Community and Family Policy Molino, explained
"[i]f for some reason we find that the policy is inconsistent
with the FOIA we'll look at whether or not the policy needs to
be changed."
Working with the National Security Archive, a research institute
in foreign affairs that uses the Freedom of Information Act to
obtain information about U.S. government operations, Mr. Begleiter
has systematically requested all still and moving images of the
return of fallen soldiers to Dover Air Force Base from October
2001 to the present.
"This is not a partisan political issue," says Mr.
Begleiter. "The ban on releasing such photos has been imposed
and supported by governments of both parties. It's all about allowing
the American people to accurately and completely assess the price
of war. The Pentagon's claim that personal privacy is the reason
for blocking release of pictures of soldiers' coffins doesn't
make sense. The pictures do not identify any individual soldier,
and the Pentagon has selectively allowed or released pictures
when the political equation has been different, including when
Americans were killed in terrorist attacks in Kenya and Tanzania
and in the attack in Yemen on the U.S.S. Cole. They even
permitted the release of some pictures of returning casualties
from the Afghanistan conflict."
Mr. Begleiter is represented by Daniel Mach, a partner at Jenner
& Block LLP in Washington, D.C., and by Meredith
Fuchs, general counsel of the National Security Archive at George
Washington University. Mr. Begleiter is the University of Delaware's
"Distinguished Journalist in Residence" and has taught
communication, political science and journalism at the University
of Delaware since retiring as CNN's world affairs correspondent
in 1999.
Documents
Note: The following documents are in PDF format.
You will need to download and install the free Adobe
Acrobat Reader to view.
The
Complaint
The
Government's Answer
Chronology
of Department of Defense Policy on Images of the Honors Provided
to American Casualties
Department
of Defense 1991 Policy Banning Media Coverage at Dover
What
Others Are Saying About the Policy: Quotes From Families, Veterans
and Editorials
Images
From Dover Air Force Base
