Suit seeks release of flag-draped coffin photos

WASHINGTON -- A journalism professor sued the government yesterday to force the Defense Department to release pictures of the flag-draped coffins of soldiers arriving in the United States from wars overseas.

Ralph Begleiter, a professor at the University of Delaware and a former world affairs correspondent for CNN, filed suit under the Freedom of Information Act for the release of government photos and video of coffins arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

The Pentagon has refused to release those photos, saying it has begun enforcing a policy approved in 1991 intended to respect the privacy of the families of the dead soldiers.

Critics counter that the government is trying to hide the human cost of the war from the public.

''They're public records," Begleiter's lawyer, Daniel Mach, said in a telephone interview. ''This is about the public's right to know the implications of US foreign policy and to assess the price of war."

Begleiter's lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Washington, lists the Defense Department and the Air Force as defendants. A Pentagon spokeswoman declined comment on the lawsuit.

In April, the Air Force released scores of photos taken at Dover in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The shots included coffins of the astronauts who died last year on the space shuttle Columbia. The Pentagon later called that release a mistake.

The Pentagon has acknowledged receiving Begleiter's request, but has not responded further, Mach said. The lack of response enables Begleiter to sue, he said.