Posted on 02/26/2009 9:56:20 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
WASHINGTON – News organizations will be allowed to photograph the homecomings of America's war dead under a new Pentagon policy, defense and congressional officials said Thursday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decided to allow photos of flag-draped caskets at Dover Air Force Base, Del., if the families of the fallen troops agree, the officials told The Associated Press.
Gates planned to announce his decision later Thursday, they said. The current ban was put in place in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush.
At least two Democratic senators have called on President Barack Obama to let news photographers attend ceremonies at the air base and other military facilities when military remains are returned to the United States. The Dover base is where casualties are brought before they are transferred on to the hometowns of their families.
Gates told reporters earlier this month that he was reviewing the policy and that if the needs of the families could be met, and the privacy concerns could be addressed, he favored honoring fallen troops as much as possible.
Gates said he initially asked for the ban to be reviewed a year ago, and was advised then that family members might feel uncomfortable with opening the ceremonies to media for privacy reasons or that the relatives might feel pressure to attend the services despite financial stresses.
Shortly after Obama took office, Democratic Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey also asked the White House to roll back the 1991 ban.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
fools.
This saddens me profoundly.
When will they permit photos of the dead bodies from the 9-11 attacks to surface?
Photos of soldiers & Marines killed on 0bama’s watch?
There is going to be some cameras Broken by family members, and a boycott of the news papers that show the pics, and the TV NETWORKS that send the reporters or buy the pics.
Regarding this, anybody see the HBO movie the other night....it was very good.
And the families and friends of the fallen should have the right to beat the living sh!te out of any photographer who shows this, now ‘lawful’ disrespect.
These sick bastards! To think that my nephew that was KIA(and all the others)for these kind of people, they make me sick!
“Elections Have Consequences”
We all need to put bumper stickers on our vehicles to this effect.
Then there's the potential for violence against photographers ~
they can't wait for campaign photo ops posing beside the coffins of true heroes
hey, its obama’s war now
Godspeed to all you heroes still serving the dying ideals of our nation
Of course we know that the only reason they want the ban overturned is for the shock value. When a fallen soldier comes home to his community I would assume there usually is local coverage per the families’ wishes. One at a time does not fit the agenda.
What if 10 flag draped caskets arrive on one plane and just 1 family objects?
Allowing the MSM vultures to photo-op the brave fallen is NOT honoring their service and sacrifice.
It’s going to be more like 10 coffins arrive, but there’s permission from only 1 family. The photographers will be denied their group photos.
The rest of the world saw them.
We've seen exactly ONE.
Rev. Mychal Judge, and that's only because the mediots incorrectly thought he was gay.
Fine. What about 9/11 photos of burning victims jumping to their deaths that the self righteous liberal media censored? Can we show those too?
The second sentence of the article says that pictures will be allowed if the family consents.
9/11 - Nope. We aren’t likely to see any of those.
Looks like Obama and the “Tolly Bon” - er Al Quaida - are big buds from what we’ve seen out of him since he was elected. He isn’t likely to want to point out the terrorists’ deeds.
The news media will proceed to browbeat our military to death, just like they did with Vietnam.
Just in time for BO’s troop buildup in Afghanistan. I’m sure he won’t mind the msm being at Dover to greet troops killed in HIS war...
It might honor them more - by reminding Americans what these brave men and women sacrificed for their freedom. Nothing says “sacrifice” like a flag-draped coffin. It is the ultimate reminder.
There were families in the past decade who wanted their family member’s coffin shown, but could not release any photos. Now, at least, every family’s wishes can be honored.
Let us pray that ever fewer photos like this will be taken, however. Even one death is too many for the family of the fallen servicemember.
This is a very bad idea...
What more could expect from a scum like Obama!
You truly believe that?
This Presidency will fall in the mountains of Afghanistan.
Obama is a fool.
I agree. Are there good individual photos on the net of the 9-ii victims?
This will bring his numbers down some more. Last I heard it was 60 %.
* Fifth week in office:
*Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decided to allow photos of flag-draped caskets at Dover Air Force Base, Del., if the families of the fallen troops agree, the officials told The Associated Press. Gates planned to announce his decision later Thursday, they said. The current ban was put in place in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090226/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/pentagon_war_dead
*Obama will propose a massive business tax on greenhouse gases in his FY 2010 federal budget to be presented this week.
The massive tax increase and power grab was buried at the end on article on Obama's forthcoming budget proposal in The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/us/politics/22budget.html?_r=1&ref=business
*Obama Upholds Detainee Policy In Afghanistan:
The Obama administration told a federal judge military detainees in Afghanistan have no legal right to challenge their imprisonment there, embracing a key argument of former President Bush’s legal team
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/washington/22bagram.html?hp
*Obama appoints "The Vacuum Cleaner" to be the new US ambassador in London. Obama has been embroiled in a cronyism row after reports that he intends to make Louis Susman, one of his biggest fundraisers, the new US ambassador in London.
http://www.freerepublic.com/%5Ehttp://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/
*Obama's administration attended four full days of negotiation at the "Durbin II" conference. During that time his people sat and passively watched the following: the failure to adopt a proposal to act against Holocaust denial, a new proposal to single out Israel, which will now be included in the draft without brackets, broad objections to anything having to do with sexual orientation, vigorous refusal by many states to back down on references to "Islamophobia" (the general allegation of a racist Western plot to discriminate against all Muslims), and numerous attacks on free speech.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/22/obama-israel-holocaust-durban-opinions-contributors_united_nations.html
*In response to the backlash against the bailout for failing home owners, triggered in part by Rick Santelli on CNN's rant on the floor of the Chicago stock exchange, Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan responded publicly; "the Obama administration's efforts to help struggling homeowners will aid "responsible" borrowers, not deadbeats or speculators."
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/22/obama.housing/index.html
*Obama gives his blessing to Sheik Sharif Ahmed's appointment as President in Somalia. The UIC was viewed as a terrorist organization by the Bush administration, but is viewed as moderate by the new US Obama administration.
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/02/terror-group-leader-takes-control-of.html
*President Barack Obama now likes to talk at commissions" and summits” after making fun of Sen. John McCain for proposing a commission to look at the economic crisis facing the country. In the "Fiscal Responsibility Summit" at the White House, the President listens "to the best and the brightest on the subject of the budget as well as the larger issues related to the economy".
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090223/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_economy
*Among the eight members named Friday to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry and the 10 senior policy aides who will assist them in their work, two own American models. Add the Treasury Department's special adviser to the task force and the total jumps to three.
http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2009/02/members-of-the-presidential-task-force-on-the-auto-industry-prefer-to-drive-imports.html
*Obama’s Homeless Woman Is Actually Real Estate Investor
New information about Henrietta Hughes has come to light. It appears that the desperate homeless woman owns real estate she shifted into the name of her son to avoid taxes and acquire government aid. Henrietta Hughes also apparently sold real estate at a significant profit in 2005.
http://theliepolitic.com/2009/02/obamas-homeless-woman-is-actually-real-estate-investor/
*The United States (Obama) plans to pledge more than $900 million to help rebuild Gaza after Israel's offensive against Hamas and strengthen the Palestinian Authority, a U.S. official said on Monday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1066381.html
*Vice President Joe Biden's Son and Brother Marketed Hedge Fund Through Stanford Company: The fund was marketed exclusively by companies controlled by Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, who is facing Securities and Exchange Commission accusations of engaging in an $8 billion fraud. The $50 million fund was jointly branded between the Bidens' Paradigm Global Advisors LLC and a Stanford Financial Group entity and was known as the Paradigm Stanford Capital Management Core Alternative Fund
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/24/report-bidens-son-brother-marketed-hedge-fund-stanford-company/
*Thomas Perez, current Labor Secretary for the State of Maryland, and former board director for Casa de Maryland, is Obama's choice to take over as the Head of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). CASA is affiliated with the National Council of La Raza. CASA has also received a two-year grant from George Soros's Open society Institute.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/annapolis/2009/02/perez_in_the_mix_for_immigrati.html
*Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano avoids mention of the terms "terrorism" or "Sept. 11" in remarks prepared for her first congressional testimony since taking office, signaling a sharp change in tone from her predecessors.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/02/24/napolitano-avoids-mentioning-terrorism-remarks-congress/
*Two of President Obama's Cabinet members authored a variety of earmarks in the $410 billion omnibus spending bill the House is poised to pass Wednesday to keep the government running through Oct. 1. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis were both House members when appropriators began to forge this legislation last year. However, a stalemate between President Bush and congressional Democrats forced the sides to punt the rest of the spending provisions until now.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/02/25/obama-cabinet-members-added-earmarks-omnibus-spending/
* President Obama will forecast the biggest U.S. deficit since World War Two in a budget on Thursday (2/26/2009) that urges a costly overhaul of the healthcare system and would spend billions to arrest the economy's freefall. An eye-popping $1.75 trillion deficit for the 2009 fiscal year is projected in Obama's first budget, according to U.S. officials who briefed reporters on the numbers. That is equal to 12.3 percent of U.S. gross domestic product -- the largest share since 1945 when the country ran a shortfall of 21.5 percent of GDP
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2644850320090226?sp=true
*The Obama administration has directed defense officials to sign a pledge stating they will not share 2010 budget data with individuals outside the federal government.
The secrecy pact comes as dozens of Bush-era Pentagon appointees remain on the job, asked to stay on by the Obama administration until replacements are confirmed to ensure continuity during wartime
http://www.federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3957786
(see my profile page for the whole list)
Good one!
How sad to make our fallen a photo op. These heroes deserve our respect. The do not deserve to be gawked at like a crash on the side of the road.
The MSM has gotten ridiculous.
If it doesn't then Gates lied. You'll have to talk to him about that.
I’ve only ever seen one photo (of a person in a partially open body bag) at ground zero in the French edition of Photo magazine. The US edition always runs different content. The US edition that month also ran 9/11 photos, a different selection, and no the dead body was not among them.
Now, as Obama goes all in on Afghanistan, that's his war.
Going forward, then, I don't immediately see how this benefits Obama or the anti-war crowd.
Stupid.
Rush on it now.
So now we’re going to make a political circus out our returning war dead. It truly is disgusting.
There is, of course, the caveat that the soldier’s family must give consent. This opens the door to all sorts of mischief. If I were Chairman of the Joint Chiefs or a Joint Chief I would resign over this travesty. But I don’t expect any of these courageous warriors will do that.
They want to make tabloid fodder out of our fallen war dead. They are wrong...any photo op with the dims will play against their political career; unless the family has specifically invited them and approved the photo be taken. Stupid is as stupid does. God Bless our Military; God Bless our Fallen Heroes - especially from our current government.
“These sick bastards! To think that my nephew that was KIA(and all the others)for these kind of people, they make me sick!”
Don’t let the weasles get to you dear friend. Just think about all the other good reasons your nephew served, may God rest his soul. There are good people left on the planet and in this country and THEY know the sacrifice your nephew made and appreciate it. I am sorry for your loss.
More seriously, The One still needs support to set his firm deadline for withdrawal from Iraq, which the military is already calling unwise. Public support will diminish as the situation continues to improve and we begin drawing down our numbers. So, he needs to resort to the usual tactics to whip up antiwar sentiment.
I wonder if they really think that far. I think your "BDS inertia" is probably more correct.
This is the only way pictures of our war dead will end up on al Jazeera and various Islamonutball web pages.
Thanx Gates, you dipchit.
Sorry for the outburst, and thank you.
That is an absolute disgrace.
During two separate military funerals I attended here, the family asked the media before hand to stand down and let them bury their fallen soldier in peace.
During those funerals the media did everything possible to photograph the event and the casket. The PGR, at the request of the familes, would place ourselves between the media and the funeral in the attempt to block the media.
The PGR attends these funerals at the request of the family. We are there to show our respect, and to protect the family and funeral from protesters and other pond scum.
It is a DAMN SHAME that the media is more concerned with getting a picture or video, than they are with respecting the family's wishes - or the fallen soldier.
God help the media when they pull this crap, and I am ever attending a military funeral, not as a PGR member but as a private citizen.
I too, am in the PGR, and I totally agree with you.
I have seen what the media does to get a good photo-op, and it only amounts to two things.
The first is BLATANT dis-respect for our Fallen and their families.
The second is they only do it to get a good shot for thier newspaper or TV stations, PERIOD.
We have many times, made a “wall of flags” to surround the families and shield them.
We have also had to chase the media away from the entrance of churches and so on.
This ruling is nothing more than ZERO being able to say that this is all Bushs’ fault, when the Fallen are photographed coming home.
Just when I thought this administrationn couldn’t sicken me more.
They have my complete disgust.
They are morally bankrupt and without a soul.
That's exactly what I was implying.
For a guy who started out his campaign saying the troops will be returned immediately, he has done everything but that.
You are right of course. And it might be 1 plane in 10 having just one family grant permission.
That decision sickens me, too. Shows a total disrespect for
the fallen heroes and a insensivity to their families who
want to grieve in private, without gawkers from the press
or the general public to distract from their grief.
God help us!
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