Friday, November 14, 2003

The Bush administration continues trying to turn Iraq casualties into nonpersons:

The Army tightened rules yesterday on press coverage of funerals at Arlington National Cemetery, directing that reporters be kept far enough away from the graveside that they would likely be unable to hear a chaplain's eulogy.

Reporters will be restricted to a roped-in "bullpen" that is generally far enough away that words spoken at graveside cannot be heard, officials said.

Jack Metzler Jr., the superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery, said the cemetery will be following rules that were already in the books but had not been strictly observed in recent years. "We're just enforcing what was already in place," he said.

The order to enforce the restriction came from Army officials at the Pentagon, Metzler said. He said the order came in response to a complaint, but he declined to provide details....


--Washington Post

I'd sure like to see some proof of that "already in place" assertion. (The policy of not allowing photos of caskets at Dover Air Force Base was already in place -- it was imposed during the presidency of Bush the Elder -- but numerous exceptions were made until very recently.)

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