War

Pentagon to allow photos of soldiers’ coffins when families permit

From the New York Times:

In a reversal of an 18-year-old policy that critics said was hiding the ultimate cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the press will now be allowed to photograph the flag-draped coffins of America’s war dead as their bodies are returned to the United States — but only if their families agree.

American Forces Press Service article.

No word on whether the military will be taking its own photos of the coffins and, if so, whether they’ll release them.

See also: Photos of Military Coffins

(Thanks, Fred.)

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Obama “reviewing” policy on military coffin photos

in 2004, The Memory Hole obtained and posted 288 photos of the war dead coming into Dover. During the Gulf War, the Pentagon banned the release of such photos taken by the military (and the taking of such photos by the civilian press), and it reiterated this ban soon after the invasion of Iraq.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, I requested these photos from Dover AFB, and they passed the request to the Air Force’s main FOIA Office, which denied it in full. I appealed, and – in a move that I never expected – the Air Force completely reversed itself and sent me all the photos on a CD. I posted them, the media swarmed, and the images have become iconic.

The Pentagon was not pleased, calling the release a “mistake.” Later, professor Ralph Begleiter and the National Security Archive successfully sued the Defense Department under FOIA, resulting in the release of more photos.

Obama was recently asked whether his administration will reverse or uphold the censorial policy, and his answer is um, er, well. The AP reports:

President Barack Obama says his administration is reviewing a policy that bans the media from photographing flag-draped coffins of fallen U.S. soldiers.

The president says his advisers are discussing with the Defense Department the prohibition on pictures of coffins returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Beyond that, Obama wouldn’t say whether he would keep the policy in place. He says he wants to understand all the implications involved before deciding how to proceed.

Agence France-Presse reports:

At the prompting of President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates Tuesday ordered a review of a ban on media coverage of the return of flag-draped coffins of fallen soldiers from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“From a personal standpoint, I think, if the needs of the families can be met, and the privacy concerns can be addressed, the more honor we can accord these fallen heroes, the better,” Gates told reporters.

Gates said he ordered the review after Obama said in a White House press conference Monday night that the White House was in the process of reviewing the ban “in conversations with the Department of Defense.” …

Gates said he had ordered a review of the ban over a year ago.

“The answer that I got back — and partly it was the result of contacts with the families — is that if the news media were at Dover, many of the families would feel compelled to be there for those ceremonies for their fallen hero.

“And for these families this would delay the return of the remains home. For others it would be a financial hardship to get to Dover. And there were some privacy concerns,” he said.

“I think that looking at it again makes all kinds of sense,” he said.

The Huffington Post has more.

Psyops: Proposed Leaflets for Iraq

On January 14, 2009, the US Defense Department released 247 pages of documents on the Iraq war, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. It’s labeled “Document Grouping 3 (released JAN 2009) (12 MB)” and is currently the last link on this page at the Pentagon’s FOIA site. Here’s the direct link to the PDF file. There are numerous interesting pre-war documents – many classified as Secret and Top Secret – concerning how the military proposed handling the invasion and occupation.

Pages 51 through 67 of that file reproduce leaflets, displayed below, that were proposed for dropping on Iraq as part of psychological operations. (They’re in English – had they been approved, they obviously would’ve been translated into Arabic.) Page 50 is a memo introducing these leaflets. It was written by the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, and was sent to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. The memo bears two handwritten notes – one saying, “These look very interesting,” the other noting, “We have been sort of underwhelmed by the quality of the leaflets dropped over Iraq.”

For a gallery of leaflets that were dropped on Iraq, check out the Psywarrior website. None of the proposed leaflets are there, so perhaps they were never greenlighted.

All of this was original designated For Official Use Only.

More leaflets after the jump…..

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Recovered History: Black Soldiers Strike During WWII

Memory Hole contributor Susan Maret, Ph.D. stumbled across this bit of forgotten history while thumbing through Dwight MacDonald’s journal Politics. From the October 1944 issue, an article on black soldiers who went on strike. (Keep in mind, WWII was still ongoing at this point, making this action even more radical than it already was.)

“The Tucson Strike.” Politics, Oct 1944, p 285.

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Pentagon documents on embedded media

On a subpage of their Freedom of Info Act website, the Defense Department today has posted 127 pages of documents concerning embedded media. The file may be downloaded here:

DOD FOIA Reading Room [PDF | 3.3 meg | 127 pp]

Memory Hole mirror

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[exclusive] “Prisoner Boxes” in Iraq

First Published Photographs of Wooden Imprisonment Crates

>>> In Iraq, some prisoners/detainees are kept in wooden crates known as “prisoner boxes,” so I filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the US Central Command asking for the following:

“Vanity Fair (Feb 2005 issue) has reported the existence of wood “prisoner boxes” being used by the US military in facilities in and around Baghdad. They are used to hold individual prisoners and detainees.

“I hereby request all photographs of these boxes, including empty boxes as well as boxes holding prisoners and detainees.”

Around nine and a half months later, CentCom responded by sending the three photographs on this page.

You are seeing the photos exactly as they were sent to me – as black and white printouts on standard printer paper, with creases from being folded into thirds. Two of the photos are extremely blurry and pixelated.

Considering that the average summer temperature in Baghdad is 111 F, and that temps can easily go above 120 F [source], it’s hard to imagine what it’s like to be inside these boxes.

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Technical note: These photographs were released as black and white print-outs by the US Central Command on 10 Nov 2005 in fulfillment of FOIA request #2005-085, filed by Russ Kick on 27 Jan 2005.

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Zip file containing high-resolution scans of all three photo print-outs [12 meg]

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Pentagon docs: expenditures in Iraq & elsewhere

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Today in its Freedom of Information Act reading room, the Pentagon has posted 202 pages of documents related to its Iraqi Freedom Fund transfers/expenditures from 2002 to 2006:

DOD reading room [PDF | 9 megs]

Memory Hole mirror

The Government Accountability Office explains the Iraqi Freedom Fund:

“The Iraqi Freedom Fund is a special account providing funds for additional expenses for ongoing military operations in Iraq, and those operations authorized by P.L. 107-40 (Sept. 13,2001), Authorization for Use of Military Force, and other operations and related activities in support of the global war on terrorism.”

Some sample pages from the Pentagon’s FOIA release:

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Proposed Tillman-Lynch report released by Oversight Committee

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From the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform:

Committee Releases Proposed Tillman Report

A proposed Committee report on the investigations into the death of Corporal Patrick Tillman and the capture of Private Jessica Lynch discloses important new details about the incidents, but could not resolve “the key issue of what senior officials knew” because “the investigation was frustrated by a near universal lack of recall.” The full Committee will meet on Thursday to approve the report.

Documents and Links

Report: Misleading Information from the Battlefield: The Tillman and Lynch Episodes (383 KB)

The Memory Hole has posted an HTML version (automatically generated using DreamWeaver).

Flashback: US Brass Ordered Civilian Massacres During the Korean War

The Associated Press has a major investigative story about the Korean War.:

In the early days of the Korean War, other American officers observed, photographed and confidentially reported on such wholesale executions [of political prisoners] by their South Korean ally, a secretive slaughter believed to have killed 100,000 or more leftists and supposed sympathizers, usually without charge or trial, in a few weeks in mid-1950.

Extensive archival research by The Associated Press has found no indication Far East commander Gen. Douglas MacArthur took action to stem the summary mass killing, knowledge of which reached top levels of the Pentagon and State Department in Washington, where it was classified “secret” and filed away.

This reminded me of an early Memory Hole article, which I’ve now updated with archival links and document images:

Civilian Massacres During the Korean War: US Military Documents Show Brass Ordered Slaughters

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15,000 more Iraq detainees by year-end (in addition to the 60,000 so far)

According to the Army, the US is planning to imprison 15,000 more “detainees” in Iraq over the next six months. (60,000 people have been detained so far.)

These little-known figures were revealed in a military contract that was flagged by Sharon Weinberger of Wired’s Danger Room blog. (However, they aren’t the focus of the post, which is titled “Strangest Iraq Contract Yet: Store Detainee Property.”) So far the media have completely ignored these revelations.