Ban lifted on coverage of return of war dead

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is reversing an 18-year ban on news coverage of the return of war dead, allowing photographs of flag-covered coffins when families of the fallen troops agree, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.

“My conclusion was we should not presume to make the decision for the families,” Gates said in announcing results of a quick review of a ban that had stood through Republican and Democratic administrations.

Although details are being worked out, the new policy will give families a choice of whether to admit the press to ceremonies at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the entry point to the United States for the coffins of overseas war dead.

President Barack Obama asked for a re-examination of the blanket ban and supports the decision to change it, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

“I have always believed that the decision as to how to honor our fallen heroes should be left up to the families,” Vice President Joe Biden said. “The past practice didn’t account for a family’s wishes, and I believed that was wrong.”

Some Democrats and liberal groups are among critics claiming the government was trying to hide the human cost of war by preventing modern versions of an iconic image from long-ago wars: a line of flag-wrapped coffins coming home.

“We should honor, not hide, flag-draped coffins,” said Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. “They are a symbol of the respect, honor and dignity that our fallen heroes deserve.”

Lautenberg had written Obama this month asking him to consider lifting the ban put in place by President George H.W. Bush in 1991, at the time of the Gulf War.

From the start, the ban has been cast as a way to shield grieving families.

Advocates for veterans and military families are split on the issue.