Univ of Delaware Prof FOIA lawsuit yields DOD photos of soldiers' remains

[cyberpj]

Pentagon releases 360 photos
Images turned over a year after UD professor requests them

By VICTOR GRETO / The News Journal
04/28/2005

DOVER -- Just a short jet trail from the air force base where it all started, Ralph Begleiter announced Wednesday that the Department of Defense released to him and the National Security Archive 360 additional photographs of soldiers' remains as they were returned to U.S. bases, from Dover to Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.

Some photos also are of burials at sea.

Begleiter, the 55-year-old former CNN reporter who is in his fifth year of teaching broadcast journalism at the University of Delaware, made the announcement while speaking to several dozen members of the Delaware Council for the Social Studies at its annual awards banquet at the Lobby House, near downtown.

Begleiter showed the teachers one "heartstopper" photo in the newly released batch, which showed a line of sailors from the USS Enterprise from May 19 of last year releasing a metal casket into the sea.


http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2005/04/28pentagonrelease.html

[cyberpj]

1. Professor's rationale tops military's

By SEAN O'SULLIVAN / The News Journal
04/29/2005A

University of Delaware professor's Freedom of Information lawsuit to get access to military photos of flag-draped remains at Dover Air Force Base was well-founded, some legal experts say.

When the government took photos of the boxes of remains being taken off planes, they became public documents, said Alice Neff Lucan, legal counsel for the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association.

And under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, there is no exemption for photos of remains, she said.

It would perhaps have been different if the remains were identifiable, Lucan said. Courts have placed limits on access to documents and other records that are seen as a personal invasion, like autopsy photos.

Some images of flag-draped remains were released in 2004 under a FOIA request but the Defense Department later said it was a mistake and refused to release more. Pentagon officials said the policy was designed to respect the privacy of the soldiers' families.

http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2005/04/29professorsratio.html

[cyberpj]

2. Lawsuit over war photos not over

By VICTOR GRETO / The News Journal
04/29/2005

The recent release of 360 photographs of war casualties doesn't mean a lawsuit filed to obtain them is over, according to the attorney representing the University of Delaware professor who pressed for them to be made public.

Nor does the release of the photos signal a change in the military's practice of photographing the dead or its practice of keeping the photos private until it is ready to release them, a military spokesman said.

Questions still remain after the release of the photographs to Ralph Begleiter, a former CNN reporter, who filed the lawsuit in October.

Begleiter requested the video and photographs taken of the arrival and transfer of Iraq and Afghanistan war casualties at Dover Air Force Base. The base is home to the Department of Defense's only stateside mortuary. The lawsuit was filed under the Freedom of Information Act, which allows for public access to government documents.

"The lawsuit is not dismissed," said Meredith Fuchs, an attorney who helped Begleiter file the lawsuit.

http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2005/04/29lawsuitoverwarp.html

[riverwalker]

3. he teaches broadcast journalism

I can't wait for his students to work at the networks. Maybe there is hope for MSM after all.