Senate Backs Ban on Photos of G.I. Coffins

[CShine]

The Bush administration's policy of barring news photographs of the flag-covered coffins of service members killed in Iraq won the backing of the Republican-controlled Senate on Monday, when lawmakers defeated a Democratic measure to instruct the Pentagon to allow pictures.

The 54-to-39 vote came after little formal debate, with 7 Democrats joining 47 Republicans to defeat the provision.

Two Republicans, Senators Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and John McCain of Arizona, voted in favor of permitting news photographers to have access to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where coffins containing the war dead from Iraq arrive.

"These caskets that arrive at Dover are not named; we just see them," said Mr. McCain, a former Navy pilot who was a prisoner of war for five years in Vietnam. He added, "I think we ought to know the casualties of war."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/22/politics/22cong.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Unbelievable! Thanks so much for posting this.

From the article:

Some Republicans, including Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, complained that Democrats were trying to score election-year points with the effort. Mr. Grassley noted that the policy had been in place since the first Bush administration, in 1991. "This policy has been in place for 13 years," he said. "Nobody has raised a complaint about it until now."

But the policy has not been consistently followed; President Bill Clinton took part in numerous ceremonies honoring dead servicemen. In March 2003, just as the United States embarked on its war with Iraq, the Pentagon issued a directive stating that there would be no news coverage of "deceased military personnel returning to or departing from" air bases.

The measure defeated on Monday was proposed by Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, as an amendment to a $447.2 billion Pentagon spending plan for 2005, now under consideration in the Senate. Lawmakers hope to finish work on the bill on Tuesday. Mr. Lautenberg's amendment would have instructed the Department of Defense to work out a new protocol permitting the news media to cover the arrival of the war dead in a manner that protected families' privacy.

"A majority of the Senate are now working on behalf of the president to conceal from the American people the true costs of this war," Senator Lautenberg said in a statement after the vote. He said his amendment "would bring an end to the shroud of secrecy cloaking the hard, difficult truth about war and the sacrifices of our soldiers."
(snip)

I am SO interested in learning who those seven DEMOCRATS ARE.

(It's easy to see the Grassley has become a pathological liar, insisting there has been a constant program since the first _Bush @$$#### tried to guide the ship of state.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I located this, from the Los Angeles Times:

"During the Afghan war during this administration, flag-draped coffins were filmed , and during the Kosovo conflict President Clinton was on the tarmac to receive the dead," Lautenberg said.

Citing privacy questions on the eve of the Iraq war a year ago, the Pentagon reiterated the ban and began enforcing it at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland and Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Photos often had been allowed at Ramstein before the current Bush administration.
(snip/...)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-wardead22jun22,1,1570902.story?coll=la-news-politics-national
(Free registration required)

[Jax]

2. Here you go JudiLyn

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=108&session=2&vote=00132

Looks to me like "7" is the number of Senators who did not vote.

I count 10 Democrats voting no on this, not 7, if I am reading this correctly.

Jax

[Judi Lynn]

4. Thank you, Jax!

I had just posted my link, but you were more thorough, by far. I stopped counting when I got to 7! Jeez! This is one great example and lesson on not believing everything you read in the press!

Thanks a lot. I'm going back to look for those varmints.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On edit:

Omigosh. I'm really glad to learn Jax saw more than the 7 Democrats. This is REALLY UGLY! Here those rascals are:

Miller (D-GA), Nay
Nelson (D-NE), Nay
Pryor (D-AR), Nay

What a sad, sad day for would-be believers. I guess with TEN DEMOCRATS joining the Republicans, it won't matter that there were a few Democrats who didn't vote at all........

~ sigh ~

[Judi Lynn]

3. I found the Democrats who crossed over to the Republicans' side

and are voting to ban media coverage of the war dead returning home:

Bayh (D-IN), Nay
Biden (D-DE), Nay
Breaux (D-LA), Nay
Carper (D-DE), Nay
Landrieu (D-LA), Nay
Levin (D-MI), Nay
Lincoln (D-AR), Nay

.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 108th Congress - 2nd Session

as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate


Vote Summary

Question: On the Amendment (Lautenberg Amdt No. 2191, As Modified )
Vote Number: 132 Vote Date: June 21, 2004, 06:08 PM
Required For Majority: 1/2 Vote Result: Amendment Rejected
Amendment Number: S.Amdt. 3291 to S. 2400 (National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 )
Statement of Purpose: To require a protocol on media coverage of the return to the United States of the remains of members of the Armed Forces who die overseas.
Vote Counts: YEAs 39
NAYs 54
Not Voting 7

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=108&session=2&vote=00132

What the hell happened to LEVIN? Have I misjudged him? I've simply believed in him for AGES.

[Jax]

6. Thank you JudiLyn

for me you are one of the stellar DUers who I count on and read often. Your efforts here are outstanding. :thumbsup:

I say let us all see the death by those serving in our Military and who were sent there by this slime master occupying the oval office. See the sacrifice. We know the names of the contractors who were beheaded, they are all over the news. But I imagine not many Americans---unless it is their loved one who is now gone---can name even one service person who was killed in this pre-emptive war of lies, or how they died.

Thank you again JudiLyn, I still don't know if I am reading the votes on that bill correctly...thank god for DU!!!

Jax

[Judi Lynn]

9. Oh, YEAH! Good point.

You couldn't shut them up about the contractors, for crying out loud. What a lament. They go on, and on, and on........

They obsess over them. Continual references, unending photos of them, THOSE particular guys become outright HALL OF FAMERS!

What about the contractor who escaped by simply opening the door and leaving his shed or whatever? He insisted he was tortured, also, although withholding food apparently wasn't one of their crimes against him!

I'm so glad you brought that up. I'm also overwrought by the recognition of their contemptible, tragic game with human lives as pawns.

[progressivebydesign]

5. McCain? What are you DOING supporting Bush?

I just don't get him... is he so desperate to become VP or PResident that he just casts aside HIS moral clarity to be Bush's plaything? He's right to fight this hideous bill..

[NewYorkerfromMass]

7. I think Senator McCain should know the cost of supporting Bush

I think....

[Old and In the Way]

8. Thanks Olympia.....

do your constituents in Maine a favor and take a stroll accross the aisle. Your a hell of a lot closer to a Kerry Democrat than a Bush Republican.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Sure wish she would. She really doesn't seem like a Republican.

Too refined!

[damnraddem]

11. This needs a lot of play: GOP is anti-GI.

And the 7 turncoats need to be roundly condemned.

[dbt]

12. Blanche Lincoln, you owe me some straight talk!

Note: I am SERIOUSLY red-assed over Lincoln's unwavering ass-kissing support of bu$h, and have been since the fool was installed in the White House. I have just finished emailing her as follows:

Senator Lincoln,

I am HUGELY, EXTREMELY disappointed in your vote against the Lautenberg bill that would have overturned the Pentagon's ban on showing the returning coffins of our American service personnel who have been killed in Iraq.

If I may be so bold, ma'am, how much more can you support George W. Bush and still look at yourself in the mirror? Has it not occurred to you by now that the damn fool lied us into a war that has killed around 850 of our soldiers? AND HOW MANY FROM ARKANSAS?

That ban was largely ignored during Afghanistan and Kosovo. It should be overturned just to show Americans that War is a dangerous and ugly thing which should only be used as a last resort.

Senator Lincoln, I want you to to take a GOOD HARD look at what Bush's policies have done for this country. Then, I want you to remember the way you used to cite your "support for our President" right after 9/11. LOOK at where your support for this tyrant has helped put this country.

I REALLY want to hear from you on why you did not vote to overturn this ban on coffin photos. And I am quite frankly tired of your reponse letters that are so carefully-worded as to tell me NOTHING.

Damn it, Senator, you owe me some straight talk. I seriously want to know how you can support Bush any further in view of the horrid, fetid mess he has made out of our country.


Every goddam one of those supposed Democrats who voted to keep this ban needs to be hearing from outraged Americans. IF bu$h IS GOING TO PLAY WAR, THE REWARDS OF IT NEED TO BE SEEN BY THOSE WHO ARE ABOUT TO FIGHT IT FOR HIM!


:nuke:
dbt