pentagon won't let families photograph caskets

from Behind the Homefront

While the Pentagon usually cites respect for survivors' privacy as the reason it won't let the press photograph the caskets of slain U.S. soldiers returning from overseas, Cox News Service reports that the military refuses to allow the families of dead soldiers take pictures as well. The Department of Defense instituted the policy under then-secretary Dick Cheney in 1991. "It's dishonorable and disrespectful to the families," said Karen Meredith, who was denied permission to photograph the coffin carrying her son, 1st Lt. Kenneth Michael Ballard, at Dover Air Force Base last fall. "They say it's for privacy, but it's really because they don't want the country to see how many people are coming back in caskets."