Photos of Coffins

A Pentagon contractor who captured the somber moment when flag-draped coffins of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq were loaded onto a military transport plane, for the final trip home, has been fired for taking the photographs. U.S. Sanitizes Stain of Death [Toronto Star].

It's bad enough that the government wants Americans to bear the burden of war -- just out of sight, by banning photos of returning bodies -- but to cap it all off DoD released more than 300 coffin photos in a Freedom of Information Act case. So since the photos are already in the public domain, why is Rumsfeld going ape over this one photographer?

 Posted by glenn