Military Kicks Out Embedded Blogger For Photographing Marine Killed In A Suicide Bombing In Iraq
Military Kicks Out Embedded Blogger For Photographing Marine Killed In A Suicide Bombing In Iraq
On June 26, a suicide bomber attacked a meeting of tribal sheikhs in Iraq’s Anbar province and killed 20 people, including three U.S. Marines. The episode was widely reported by U.S. media. Zoriah Miller, a photojournalist and blogger embedded with U.S. Marines in Iraq, took pictures of the attack’s grisly aftermath, including one of the fallen soldiers.
The U.S. military, however, was incensed at Miller’s portrayal of the horrors of war and immediately “disembedded” him from his Marine unit. IPS reports on the fall-out:
“Tuesday [Jul. 1] I awoke to a call in their combat operations centre, and the person on the phone told me they were a PAO (Public Affairs Officer) at Camp Fallujah, and he wanted me to take my blog down right away,” Miller told IPS. “I asked them why, and was told then called back after five minutes by a higher ranking PAO who claimed I had broken my contract by showing photos of dead Americans with U.S. uniforms and boots.”
Miller said the PAO claimed he was not allowed, by the embed contract, to show dead or wounded U.S. citizens or soldiers in the field. “I never signed any contract for that,” Miller said.
Miller also told the Ventura County Star that he believed he was within the rules because the victim was unidentifiable. Additionally, he waited to post the pictures until four days after the attack. Miller said that he received strong support from the lower-ranking Marines, who “were on [his] side.”
The military may have realized its case was weak. Two days later, on July 3, Miller received an official letter with a new reason for his dismissal: He had posted “detailed information of the effectiveness of the attack” and therefore “put all U.S. forces in Iraq at greater risk for harm.” Miller explains the military’s spinning:
“The bottom line is that the thing they cited as the reason for my dismissal was ‘information the enemy could use against you’. They realised, probably from keeping track of my blog, that I was not showing identifiable features of a soldier…and they couldn’t find a reason to kick me out. Because it was a high ranking person who got killed, they were all fired up.”
Miller concluded, “Up to that point they said it was because I showed pictures of bodies with pieces of uniform and boots. The letter, though, doesn’t mention that at all. I checked the document I had about ground rules for media embeds, and I followed them.”
Miller now plans on returning to the United States and appealing the military’s decision. “You’re a war photographer, but once you take a picture of what war is like then you get into trouble,” he said.
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These images is what helped mobilize people to protest and stop Vietnam. Our government learned a lot from that time. One of which is to hide the truth from the masses.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:02 pmWell, God forbid we should actually see what BushCo has done to our troops!
July 7th, 2008 at 3:02 pmWell, we ARE spending blood to get oil – why not show some of it?
July 7th, 2008 at 3:04 pmYes. We must shelter the public from the horrors of war. Better to inform them of the successes such as the 18% utilization of running water and electricity.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:04 pmGood golly, what a wonderful time in Iraq!
(severe snark!)
I don’t see how preventing these images from exposure would help us “win”.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:06 pmRoger?
.
God forbid Americans see the ravages of war and all…
.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:08 pmMaybe that dead soldier up there in the photo would still be alive today if the elected democratic majority did the job they were elected to do – it would seem we have more war criminals than reps in DC.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:09 pmIt’s like trying to sanitize a leaky bag of diahreea. Not going to happen, Pentagon. Eventually the shiit leaks out for all to see.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:09 pmAnything that could possibly impede that money flow is taboo to the neocons. A picture of a dead U.S. soldier is anathema to them. They know how real pictures and reporting of war (especially this one) could sway public opinion. Remember, George Bush tried to romanticize war. But I also believe that it will take much more than one picture to pry the apethathetic American citizens from their Ipods, their Starbucks and American Idol.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:13 pmwhy should the U.S. military be concerned?
it’s not like MSM would’ve published the photos anyway.
that’s too disturbing to the sheeple!
July 7th, 2008 at 3:15 pmThis is simply Bush&Co being Bush&Co.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:18 pmCover up the bad stuff and tell the public that things are going swimmingly for everyone in Iraq.
They majored in Potemkin and George Orwell, with a minor in typical dictatorial behaviors.
Remember how Rachel Ray’s scarf got the right side so blinded with hate? This is the same thing. Go to war and die, but don’t show the taxpayers and families of those slain soldiers what it is really like. Geez, ya think? GOP sucks.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:18 pmBut I thought the shinning lights and roaring bombs from Shock and Awe were considered a delight…
July 7th, 2008 at 3:22 pmIt’s when the toy soldiers that the current regime thinks its playing with turn into real people that they get bent out of shape.
As long as they’re nameless/faceless, then all is well.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:27 pmInteresting how when a picture is there, it changes the concept from ‘just a bunch of numbers’ to humanity.
Which is why BushCo doesn’t want us to see it.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:28 pmMultiply that picture by FOUR THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED plus more dead Americans and a couple hundred thousand dead Iraqis (including women and children) and you have Bush’s War.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:31 pmWar would not be possible if humans were not de-humanized. It’s part of the brainwashing of our military and our public.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:31 pmcan’t see the real thing or the pentagon will shitcan your ass. he’s lucky he wasn’t tillman’d out of iraq…
July 7th, 2008 at 3:39 pmAfter all, suicide is painless.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:41 pmRepeat no Evil, Photo no Evil, No Evil Exists
The NeoScum mantra…
July 7th, 2008 at 3:43 pm140 years ago W. T. Sherman told the American people the truth with the following sentances:
July 7th, 2008 at 3:44 pm“War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it, the crueler it is the sooner it will be ended.”
The Administration and its supporters keep ignoring the last part and, too conveniently, don’t bother trying to end it.
Impeach Pelosi, Cheney and Bush and Save the Constitution!
Sorry, but I think the military is justified to some degree here. When I was over there, we always tried to paint the rosiest picture for our families. I remember a friend in my platoon calling home and trying to reassure his mom that everything was just fine, and that we weren’t doing any of the dangerous stuff. His mom wouldn’t believe him, and was very upset, because she had just seen him on CNN. A lot of the stuff we did was pretty scary, but we still didn’t want our families at home to have to deal with that. My specific job involved removing the roadside IED’s. I was in Sadr City, Fallujah, and some of the roughest areas of Anbar province from 2003-2004. But my mom always thought I was safe on some base with lots of protection around me. She needed to believe that, and I needed to know that she wasn’t worried sick. When you see the picture of this dead Marine, remember that his family probably wouldn’t want that constant reminder all over the TV and internet. And the other Marines in his unit are probably trying to reassure their families as well.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:46 pmJabberjaw Says: nothing
July 7th, 2008 at 3:53 pmMiller said the PAO claimed he was not allowed, by the embed contract, to show dead or wounded U.S. citizens or soldiers in the field. “I never signed any contract for that,” Miller said.
Chris L Says:
Sorry, but I think the military is justified to some degree here.
I stopped reading your post at that point. The reality of what Bush has brought to this nation, this region, and this earth must be shouted from the hightest mountain top – at every conceivable opportunity. By keeping information from the citizens is exactly why we have the debacle we currently have.
Your post gives the impression that we aren’t strong or smart enough to make decisionsm based on the ‘actual’ reality – not the reality the Army PR flak comes up with. I can appreciate you wanting to keep your information ’safe’ from mom and such, but this war is larger than that.
The GOP treats its members as children – the Army should treat its brave soldiers families and the taxpayers as adults who can handle the truth.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:55 pmAnd the sand trickles into the ostrich’s ears and it’s all peaceful, life is good.
Not showing the pictures of the consequences of Bush’s War is aiding and abetting the enemy. The enemy in the White House. How many soldier’s are going to die for Bush’s ego? How many are going to die because we ignore the reality of the war?
Bush will never be able to scrub the blood stains off his hands.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:56 pmJabberjaw:
July 7th, 2008 at 3:56 pmYahoo “nasty pictures of dead iraqis”. The first link is pretty nasty. I wonder how the Abu Ghraib families felt. Oh I forgot those pictures weren’t supposed to get out. Those were supposed to be for private photo albums. The kind one might show their grandkids some day
What’s unbelievable is that anyone thinks it alright to cover the actual damage being done to actual human beings.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:57 pmWant a war? Then don’t sanitize it. Many families know thisis a cluster*** and want their sons outoftheir.
tony and lido
Chris L and Jabberjaw,
I was in combat in Vietnam and my family had the same issues you mentioned. But the difference was that it helped people understand what war really is and helped end that clusterfcuk. Even though the Repugs want us to not see the reality, it is still there.
Oh, and a draft might help change things, too.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:58 pmshould read not alright to cover
July 7th, 2008 at 3:58 pmupside99 Says:
Oh, and a draft might help change things, too.
#####
Agreed.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:02 pmChris L:
July 7th, 2008 at 4:06 pmDespite what any of the oddballs that stop by here periodically to try to create havoc. I think you will and probably alreay have found that most here respect your service and that of others. I myself do not support this situation but that was not of your making.
best-
(completely ignoring jibberjabs nonsense)
…and never ever show the horrible pictures of the thousand maimed Iraqi children. Wouldn’t want the American sheeple to have contradictory feelings of empathy towards “those brown foreigners”
July 7th, 2008 at 4:08 pmThe Pentagon loves to berate us all about the “ultimate sacrifice” of soldiers and how so many of us don’t appreciate it.
Soldiers themselves often complain about our disconnection from their sacrifices and successes, and often blame the media for that and not without some cause.
But it is the Pentagon, this administration and its political sympathizers in the media conglomerates that have managed and maintained this disconnect that are to blame more than an apparently uncaring self-obsessed general population.
By the same token many soldiers are likewise disconnected from the public and their access to US media is similarly controlled. Rush Limbaugh is a staple of American Forces Radio but not Air America, for example. Access to websites that do not hew to the GOP and Pentagon line are blocked as a matter of policy, determined by the broadest of metrics.
Not only is this situation bad in the present, it doesn’t bode well for the near future as veterans come home and have to rehabilitate. There’s the real possibility of a redux of the bitterness that occurred during and after Vietnam and it is a situation entirely manufactured due to the suppression of reality and truth by the Pentagon, the administration and their proxies in the media.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:08 pmOh little drummer shark…
Do you beat the drum of ‘Nader’ because you have no other gifts to bring your kings in the RNC?
No one’s buying it…
The press has a duty to report the facts in Iraq… not the ‘facts’ the military would like you to see.
The press has a duty to question our political leaders… not repeat their press conferences.
The press has a role to play in democracy, why are you against them performing it?
Pah-rum-pah-pah-pum…
July 7th, 2008 at 4:12 pmWar photos is what really helped America reach a tipping point in Viet Nam. Nasty? Yes. Needed? Absolutely.
You cannot sanitize War! War is dirty, war is wrong. war is never a solution.
Bush is a mass murderer by proxy.
America should be ashamed of itself.
Stop the insanity of covering up atrocity & sanitizing it in the People’s name.
The only way to end War is for people to know what War is.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:20 pmjabberjaw Says:
——————————————————————————–
Did anyone mention that those photos were digitally-altered on Photoshop?
Did anyone mention that your brain was surgically altered at birth?
July 7th, 2008 at 4:33 pmjabberjaw Says:
Did anyone mention that those photos were digitally-altered on Photoshop?
Are you claiming this? Or just putting this out there so later you can claim that you ‘heard’ they were altered?
July 7th, 2008 at 4:37 pmjabberjaw Says:
Did anyone mention that those photos were digitally-altered on Photoshop?
no but these were,
did you mention that?
:)
tp trolls,
vote nader
not mcsame!
*
tp trolls,
vote barr
not mcsame!
*
you’re welcome.
?
July 7th, 2008 at 4:39 pm#39 – Was your brain mechanically altered rolling around in the garbage truck?
July 7th, 2008 at 4:41 pmYa know, if you go to a heavily controlled communist country, they will provide the reporter with a handler to make sure that you only go to places to get the approved story and don’t take pictures of things you’re not supposed to.
If you take an illicit picture, they will kick you out.
How is this different ?
July 7th, 2008 at 4:47 pmWhat did the German people say when the allies took them to the concentration camps????? “we didn’t know” Maybe if the news media was allowed to do there jobs without retribution from employers or owners of the media….we might not have the same mess!!! Just think about it…if there covering up deaths, what else are they covering up???????
Just a little something to make you go HMMMMMM?????
July 7th, 2008 at 4:52 pmWe Americans need to see exactly what our tax dollars are buying.
Then perhaps we wouldn’t be such willing dupes of our government.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:53 pmhttp://www.zeitgeistmovie.com see why the government wants war!!!! See why the governments and religion is set up to controll the masses.
Keep turning your back…..and when your child has no future…you can just turn you back since your so used to doing just that.
Get up and do something for your kids future.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:59 pmBlood for oil.
I say, we should take Al qaeda, the oil executives and the BUsh administration and put them together in one arena and let nature sort them out. If they want to fight, let them fight…but regular people want to move on with their lives and start focusing on important things like poverty and global warming.
Enough already!
July 7th, 2008 at 5:10 pmUSA “War on Terror” has morphed into War on Truth. Lies always lose in the end.
July 7th, 2008 at 5:31 pmWe wouldn’t want the bad guys to find out that bombs kill people and make messes within a few feet radius.
July 7th, 2008 at 5:58 pmBut people don’t get killed or maimed in bushwar. It’s a totally sterile sort if party atmosphere.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:09 pmThey hate us for our… oh, well.
July 7th, 2008 at 9:03 pmLittle Drummer Shark~
July 8th, 2008 at 8:39 amWhere on Zoriah Miller’s blog does it say that this photo was digitally altered? I can’t find it…
Do you understand the difference between color correction/cropping and ‘digital alteration?’
Welcome to the Bloodless War. A war fit for prime time viewing and something even the kids can watch. No blood! No trauma! No anguish! No death, No gorey wounds or dismembered bodies!! AND the good guys always win! Get your popcorn and grab the kids and sit yourself down for an full filled introduction to war by Oliver North and Dick Cheney!
July 8th, 2008 at 11:38 am