US contractor fired for coffin photo
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-04-24 09:18

A US contractor and her husband have been fired after her photograph of 20 flag-draped coffins of US troops going home from Iraq was published in violation of military rules.

Coffin of US millitary personnel are ready to be offloaded at Dover Air Force Base in Dover. [Reuters/file]

Tami Silicio, 50, was fired by Maytag Aircraft Corp. after military officials raised concerns about the photograph taken in Kuwait, said William L. Silva, Maytag president.

The Pentagon tightly restricts the publication of photographs of coffins with the remains of US troops and has forbidden journalists from taking pictures at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the first stop for the bodies of troops being sent home.

Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant- Colonel Gary Keck said the release of the mortuary photos appears to be in conflict with department policy.

John Molino, a deputy undersecretary of defence who oversees the policy, said the Pentagon was not involved in the decision to fire Silicio, but refused to say whether she should be rehired.

Molino said the policy, in effect since 1991, was crafted with input from families to protect the privacy and dignity of the deceased.

"Quite frankly, we don't want the remains of our service members who have made the ultimate sacrifice to be the subject of any kind of attention that is unwarranted or undignified," said Molino.

Critics have said the rules were aimed at sanitizing the war for the public.

But the Air Force said that, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, it released to a website (http://www.thememoryhole.org) on April 14 more than 300 photographs showing the remains of US service members returning home.

Lieutenant-Colonel Jennifer Cassidy, an Air Force spokeswoman, said the request to make the photographs public initially was denied by Dover Air Force Base, then was granted by the Air Force Air Mobility Command.

But Cassidy said the Pentagon had decided the release violated its own rules and had decided no further copies of the pictures will be made public.

Seattle Times arouses controversy

The Seattle Times printed Silicio's photograph last weekend and again on Thursday. The picture shows soldiers tending to 20 coffins completely covered with US flags on April 7 inside a military cargo plane at the Kuwait airport.

Silicio, who was raised in the Seattle area, was not paid by the newspaper for the picture, which a friend in the United States, Amy Katz, passed on to the newspaper. Katz said she had since found an agent to sell the photograph.

Silicio's former employer, Colorado-based Maytag Aircraft Corp, a subsidiary of Mercury Air Group Inc, said the couple was dismissed for violating US government and company regulations.

"Maytag deeply regrets these actions and fully concurs with the Pentagon's policy of respecting the remains of our brave men and women who have fallen in service to our country," said Maytag President William Silva.

Molino said his office had no part in Silicio's dismissal.

"I indicated that I didn't think it would be appropriate for the Pentagon to take any sanctions against her," he said.

Asked whether the policy was intended to keep US citizens in the dark about the fact that the bodies of US troops are returning regularly from Iraq, Molino said, "I don't see that as our motivation."

Katz said Silicio, whose own son died from an illness, took the picture to show the "respectful death ritual" for slain soldiers and not to make money or become famous. Other contractors and soldiers had taken similar pictures, she said.

"Tami Silicio was only pledging allegiance to our flag and to our heroes laying beneath it," Katz said.

At a rally in Dover last month, war protesters criticized President George W. Bush for continuing the practice of previous administrations of not allowing the public or media to witness the arrival of remains at the base.

"We need to stop hiding the deaths of our young; we need to be open about their deaths," said Jane Bright of West Hills, California, whose 24-year-old son, Evan Ashcraft, was killed in combat in July.

In a related incident, a cargo worker was fired on Wednesday by a military contractor after her photograph of flag-draped coffins bearing the remains of US soldiers was published on the front page of Sunday editions of The Seattle Times.

Since the start of the war in March 2003, about 706 US troops have died in Iraq, with more than 100 killed this month and 3630 US troops got injured, the Pentagon said.