Yahoo! News - U.S. Contractor Fired for Military Coffin Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. contractor and her husband have been fired after her photograph of 20 flag-draped coffins of American troops going home from Iraq was published in violation of military rules.

The Pentagon tightly restricts publication of photographs of coffins with the remains of U.S. troops and has forbidden journalists from taking pictures at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the first stop for the bodies of troops being sent home.

Molino said the policy, in effect since 1991, was crafted with input from families to protect the privacy and dignity of the deceased. Critics have said the rules were aimed at sanitizing the war for the public.

But the Air Force said that, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, it released to a Web site (http://www.thememoryhole.org) on April 14 more than 300 photographs showing the remains of U.S. service members returning home.

Lt. Col. Jennifer Cassidy, an Air Force spokeswoman, said the request to make the photographs public initially was denied by Dover Air Force Base, then was granted by the Air Force Air Mobility Command. But Cassidy said the Pentagon had decided the release violated its own rules and had decided no further copies of the pictures will be made public.

Too late! They are already out there. And they should be required viewing for every American, especially Bush supporters.