“My Lai of Iraq” PLEASE release the photos Why the censorship?

The 1968 My Lai massacre, which some compare to Haditha, dramatically reduced support for the American military campaign in Vietnam.


What are you REALLY afraid of?




http://allspinzone.com/wp/2007/01/08/when-the-media-gags-itself

By making the decision not to publish the photographs from Haditha, the Washington Post editors are no better than the Holocaust deniers that recently met in Tehran. More importantly, if photographic evidence didn’t exist of the Holocaust (or was held back, or destroyed), it would be so much easier for the deniers to credibly make their case that the Holocaust didn’t happen. In fact, history could easily be rewritten.

It’s time for the Washington Post editors to make a decision. By holding back these images of atrocities committed in the name of the American people, the Post editors allow the atrocities to continue. This is particularly true in a week which decisions are going to be announced that will define U.S. involvement in Iraq for at least the rest of George Bush’s term in office.

If you run a blog, I humbly ask that you bring this story to the attention of your readers, and that you ask your readers to contact the ombudsman at the Washington Post:

Deborah Howell
202-334-7582
ombudsman@washpost.com

We deserve the truth. We can handle the truth. We must know the truth in order to make informed decisions going forward.



http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/global-evidence-hunt-uncovers-horrific-images/2007/01/07/1168104865104.html

Several marines took photos on November 19, 2005, some of them as part of an intelligence-gathering operation and some in order to record what had happened to the Humvee that was destroyed by a massive roadside bomb, killing Corporal Miguel "T. J." Terrazas.

The photographs of the bomb crater and the shredded vehicle show the power of the explosion that first set the Haditha incident in motion.

Among the images, there is a young boy with a helicopter on the front of his pyjamas, slumped over, his face and head covered in blood. There is a mother lying on a bed, arms splayed, the bodies of three young children huddled against her right side.

There are men with gaping head wounds, and a woman and a child hunkered down on their knees, their hands frozen around their faces as if permanently bracing for an attack.

The images are contained in thousands of pages of NCIS investigative documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Post editors decided that most of the images were too graphic to publish in the newspaper.

I made a decision not to watch the videos on line of Saddam's hanging and I can make a decision whether or not to look at the victims of the military's slaughter. It's MY choice, not the Washington Post's. Based on your verbal descriptions of the pictures, I have enough information to realize the horror of what happened. My personal choice would be not to actually view these pictures. As to those people who support Bush and idealize what our military is doing in Iraq, or those young men and women who are tempted by the $40,000 enlistment bonuses - let them look for themselves. And also show the photos of the tens of thousands of maimed and crippled US soldiers, so they can realistically decide if $40,000 is enough to compensate someone in their early 20's for living the rest of their lives without their arms, legs, eyesight &/or genitals.

To the Washington Post

BE A MOLDER OF CONSENSUS




This quote comes from a speech Dr. King gave on January 14, 1968. He had visited Joan Baez and her mother in jail and he gave the speech outside the Santa Rita jail in California afterwards.

“And I do not plan to cooperate with evil at any point. Somebody said to me not too long ago,

“ ‘Dr. King don’t you think you are hurting your leadership by taking a stand against the war in Viet Nam? Aren’t people who once respected you going to loose respect for you? And aren’t you hurting the budget of your organization?’

“And I had to look at that person and say,



“‘I am sorry sir, you don’t know me. I am not a consensus leader. And I do not determine what is right and wrong by looking at the budget of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference or by taking a Gallup poll of the majority opinion. Ultimately a genuine leader is not of consensus but a molder of consensus.’