Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets.

To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead soldiers' homecomings on all military bases. .............. (UPDATE: Uh-Oh. The woman who took those photos in Iraq was fired. See that new story in bottom of article.)

In March, on the eve of the Iraq war, a directive arrived from the Pentagon at U.S. military bases. "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," the Defense Department said, referring to the major ports for the returning remains.

A Pentagon spokeswoman said the military-wide policy actually dates from about November 2000 -- the last days of the Clinton administration -- but it apparently went unheeded and uninformed, as images of caskets returning from the Afghanistan war appeared on television broadcasts and in newspapers until early this year [2003]. Though Dover Air Force Base, which has the military's largest mortuary, has had restrictions for 12 years, others "may not have been familiar with the policy," the spokeswoman said. This year, "we've really tried to enforce it." End of Story.

------------------------------------------

Following paragraph comments by website owner of www.SolomonsTemple.com

If the bandwidth is not working too see the pictures of our Fellow Dead American, sons, daughters husbands, brothers, sisters and wives. YOU Might take a few seconds to see the film of what appears to be a missile HITTING the World Trade Center on 911. It came from the plane just prior to impact. See it from six different camera angles.

LINK to see video and still pics of missile and plane hitting WTC Tower 2

As you know the Pentagon has moved to block any and all images of the dead arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, home to the Defense Department's largest mortuary.

However we now have a free press until the internet is controlled. Which will happen in the not to distant future. They are trying to move it under the oversite of the UN. Believe it or not.

Suppressed truth takes a lot of bandwidth. It may be slow in loading. Seems the whole world wants to know.

LINK TO 300+ PHOTOS OF OUR AMERICAN DEAD SONS AND DAUGHTERS www.TheMemoryHole.org.

Pictures of OUR WOUNDED SOLDERS. Our Wounded Fellow Americans who we are very proud of. Second LINK to Memory Hole Website OUR WOUNDED Soldiers

THIRD LINK TO Photocopy of Dept. of Defense letter accompanying the photos upon there FOIA release. Click here

For our soldiers of battle email your photo's to me directly. For obvious reasons I cannot ask my leatherneck to send me photos that would not be to cool. :-)

Click Here to email photo's to [email protected]

You will remain anonymous. Satisfaction Guaranteed. It is simple. Create a new hotmail email account to send them and use that. :-)

Any other stories? Let us know.

More pictures posted here, SOON. I will get them posted later on today. Keep them coming.

-----------------------------------

FLASH, THIS JUST IN: UPDATE NEWS ARTICLE:

US CONTRACTOR FIRED FOR TAKING MILITARY COFFIN PHOTO

4,23,2004

WASHINGTON - A US contractor and her husband have been fired after her photograph of 20 flag-draped coffins of US soldiers going home from Iraq was published in violation of military rules.

"I lost my job and they let my husband go as well," Tami Silicio, who loaded US military cargo at Kuwait International Airport for a US company, told Reuters in an email response to questions.

The Pentagon tightly restricts publication of photographs of coffins with the remains of US soldiers and has forbidden journalists from taking pictures at Dover Air Force Base, the first stop for the bodies of US soldiers being sent home.

The military says the policy is in place to protect the privacy of families of those killed, but critics have said the rules are aimed at sanitizing the war for the public.

The Seattle Times printed Silicio's photograph last weekend and again on Thursday. The picture shows soldiers tending to 20 coffins completely covered with American flags on April 7 inside a military cargo plane at the Kuwait airport.

Silicio, who was raised in the Seattle area, was not paid by the newspaper for the picture, which a friend in the United States, Amy Katz, passed on to the newspaper. Katz said she had since found an agent to sell the photograph.

Silicio's former employer, Colorado-based Maytag Aircraft Corp., a subsidiary of Mercury Air Group Inc., said the couple was dismissed for violating US government and company regulations.

"Maytag deeply regrets these actions and fully concurs with the Pentagon's policy of respecting the remains of our brave men and women who have fallen in service to our country," said Maytag President William Silva.

The Pentagon has declined to comment on Silicio's case but spokesman James Turner said the policy of media coverage of war dead has been in effect since 1991.

"The principal focus and purpose of the policy is to protect the wishes and the privacy of the families during their time of greatest loss and grief," he said.

Katz said Silicio, whose own son died from an illness, took the picture to show the "respectful death ritual" for slain soldiers and not to make money or become famous. Other contractors and soldiers had taken similar pictures, she said.

Katz said her friend believed she was in Kuwait to "stand in for the parents who can't be here for the living and the fallen."

"Tami Silicio was only pledging allegiance to our flag and to our heroes laying beneath it," she said.

Violence has escalated over the past month in Iraq and the death toll among US soldiers has risen quickly. Since the start of the war in March last year, more than 700 US troops died in Iraq, Pentagon figures show. More than 100 have been killed this month alone.

The Seattle Times stood by its decision to use the photograph. Managing Editor David Boardman said it was unfortunate Silicio was fired but she was aware of the consequences when the picture was published.

"This person is not an anti-war activist," Boardman said. "Her motivation was to share with the American people and families of service people both alive and dead how these bodies are being handled and the honor and respect they are given."

- REUTERS http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001909527_coffin22m.html

END

---------------------------------------------

FLASH NEWS STORY NUMBER 3. GENERAL ELECTRIC AND SIEMENS LEAVE IRAQ.

GENERAL ELECTRIC AND SIEMENS LEAVE IRAQ, TO MUCH WAR

____________________________________

What is truth?
Pontius Pilate, Roman Governor, Jerusalem, 32 A.D.

I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
J.C. 32 A.D.

Pilate therefore said unto him, Are you a king then? Jesus answered, You say that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the TRUTH. Every one that is of the truth hears my voice.

The TRUTH shall set you free and you shall be free indeed (forever).
J.C. 32 A.D.

----------------------------------