War Images
In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners. - Camus
Some images depict GRAPHIC and gruesome images.
kids with guns music by gorillaz from jose rodriguez on Vimeo.
Since the end of the Vietnam War, the Oval Office has learned that its military actions lose popular support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets.
The Bush administration's solution has been to end the public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead soldiers' homecomings on all military bases. On the eve of the Iraq war, the Defense Department issued the following statement: "There will be no arrival ceremonies for, or media coverage of, deceased military personnel returning to or departing from Ramstein [Germany] airbase or Dover [Del.] base, to include interim stops,"
On Friday 29 April 2005 the Pentagon, under fire, reversed its policy and released photographs of flag-draped caskets bearing American soldiers killed in combat. The pictures, taken by military photographers, were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Ralph J. Begleiter, a University of Delaware professor who sought all photos of the caskets of soldiers who died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since October 2001.
The Defense Department made the photos public with few dates or locations and little context, making it unclear whether the individuals in any of the hundreds of pictures died in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere. The faces of soldiers accompanying the coffins were blacked out to make the images unusable.
On Thursday September 29, 2005 US District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ruled photos of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released despite government claims that they could damage America's image.
The ACLU sought the release of 87 photographs and four videotapes as part of an October 2003 lawsuit demanding information on the treatment of detainees in US custody and the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture. The ACLU contends that prisoner abuse is systemic.