<h3 class="blog_title">Military Still Trying To Hide War Dead From Public</h3>

Avert Your Eyes: New Restrictions On Funerals Of Iraq War Dead
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Arlington Whistleblower Fired For Trying To Grant Media Access To Military Funerals On April 24, the Washington Post's Dana Milbank reported on the Pentagon's effort to keep media out of earshot and photo range of the funeral of Lt. Col. Billy Hall, the 4,011th American to die in Iraq. Milbank wrote that Gina Gray, Arlington's new director of public affairs, "pushed vigorously to allow the journalists more access to the service yesterday — but she was apparently shot down by other cemetery officials."

Today, Milbank reports that Gray was demoted and then fired by the Army for trying to investigate the restrictions on the media:

When Gina Gray took over as the public affairs director at Arlington National Cemetery about three months ago, she discovered that cemetery officials were attempting to impose new limits on media coverage of funerals of the Iraq war dead — even after the fallen warriors' families granted permission for the coverage. She said that the new restrictions were wrong and that Army regulations didn't call for such limitations.

Six weeks after The Washington Post reported her efforts to restore media coverage of funerals, Gray was demoted. Twelve days ago, the Army fired her.

Gray told Milbank that Arlington's deputy superintendent "has been calling the families of the dead to encourage them not to allow media coverage at the funerals — a charge confirmed by a high-ranking official at Arlington, who spoke on the condition of anonymity."

The Pentagon seems determined to keep the media away from the realities of war. Just 10 days ago, the military kicked out an embedded blogger for photographing the body of a Marine killed by a suicide bomber, in late June. Last month, CBS's Lara Logan said she believed "the soldiers feel forgotten" because Americans don't understand the harshness of the Iraq war. "Tell me the last time you saw the body of a dead American soldier. What does that look like? Who in American knows what that looks like?" she asked.

http://thinkprogress.org/

ETHICS -- MILITARY OFFICIALS INCREASE MEDIA RESTRICTIONS AT SOLDIERS' FUNERALS: Today, Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank reports that Gina Gray, the newly appointed public affairs director at the Arlington National Cemetery, appears to have been fired for her efforts to restore media access to military interments. In April, Milbank wrote an article about how Pentagon officials had obstructed reporters from viewing the burial ceremony of Lt. Col. Billy Hall, who had been killed while serving in Iraq, even though Hall's family had granted permission to the media to cover the funeral. After Milbank's initial column, which noted that Gray was shot down by her superiors for attempting to allow reporters to access the ceremony, Gray says she was demoted, that her BlackBerry had been disconnected, and that she received various forms of pressure before eventually being fired. Milbank notes the strict rules at Arlington Cemetery are a continuation of policies started under Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who rigorously censored images of American dead and even flag-draped caskets returning home from the war. CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan also recently raised the issue of the Pentagon concealing the death of American soldiers, asking on the Daily Show, "Tell me the last time you saw the body of a dead American soldier?"