Helen Thomas

The American people got an inadvertent look at flag-draped coffins of fallen American soldiers on their return home from Iraq.

It was inadvertent because photos of the coffins slipped past Pentagon rules prohibiting media coverage of caskets of the war dead as they return to Dover Air Force Base, Del.

Those rules were first issued by then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney in 1991 and reinforced last year on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Why the blackout? The Pentagon says the policy was designed to protect the privacy of the families of the war dead.

That explanation just happens to be politically self-serving for the Bush administration, jittery about the American public having the opportunity to regularly view the sad images of war. It's a case of out-of-sight, out-of-mind.

The Pentagon also is scrupulous not to disclose any statistics it might have of the number of Iraqis killed or wounded in the war.

Somehow the media and the public have accepted this management of bad news, despite the historical fact that other wars have been reported on more graphically. The American public had a long -- and vivid -- experience during the Vietnam era of the horror of war.

The Pentagon's claim that privacy considerations underlie its no-photo rule is patently phony -- there are no names on the caskets.

The only reason we saw these pictures of the coffins is the result of enterprising efforts by Russ Kick, a dedicated First Amendment advocate and operator of The Memory Hole, a web site. Using the Freedom of Information Act, he obtained the release of 288 pictures of flag-draped coffins arriving at Dover from Iraq. The pictures had been taken by military photographers.

Once again, we have evidence of the benefits of the federal Freedom of Information Act to pry information from reluctant bureaucrats.

As might be expected, the Defense Department said the release of the photos was "a mistake."

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Gary Keck said release of the photos appeared to be in conflict with policy.

Col. Jon Anderson, a spokesman for the Dover base, said: "They're not happy with the release of the photos."

But by then, the pictures were out in public, thanks to Mr. Kick.

The photos showed neat rows of coffins covered with the stars and stripes and were stunning in their solemn message.

This may have been the first time that President Bush has seen flag-draped coffins coming back from Iraq. He, like the rest of the American public, has been avoiding the sad consequences of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. A White House spokesman said Bush was "moved" when he saw the photographs of the rows of coffins in the newspapers but he stood behind the censorship policy.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. -- Bush's likely opponent in the presidential election in November -- took issue with the ban on photos and told the American Society of Newspaper Editors last week: "Truth is on the line in this election."

A New York Times-CBS News poll taken in December said 62 percent of Americans contacted said the public should be permitted to see photos of the military honor guard receiving the caskets of soldiers killed in Iraq. Twenty-seven percent disagreed and said they should not be shown.

Coincidentally, Maytag Aircraft Corp., a private air cargo handling firm, fired Tami Silicio of Seattle and her husband, David Landry, for taking pictures of coffins being loaded onto a transport plane in Kuwait in violation of Defense Department and company policies.

Silicio, a cargo worker, said she wanted to show the parents of the dead that "their children weren't thrown around like a piece of cargo" and that the coffins were handled with care.

Pentagon sensitivity to photos showing the cost of war dates back to the Vietnam War when disturbing news stories about "body counts" gripped Americans and the haunting pictures of "body bags" flooded their living rooms.

Let's face it. There is a war going on and we should know the human price.

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