Embedded Photojournalist Accuses US Military of Censorship After Being Barred for Publishing Photo of Dead Marine

An American photojournalist who was embedded with the Marines in Fallujah has been barred from the Marine Corps because of graphic photographs showing Marines killed in a suicide bombing last month. A few hours after he posted some photos of the bombing on his blog, a high-ranking public affairs official ordered him to remove it. When he refused, he was told his “embed” had been terminated and he would be flown out of Iraq.

AMY GOODMAN: An American photojournalist who was embedded with the Marines in Fallujah has been barred from the Marine Corps because of graphic photographs showing Marines killed in a suicide bombing last month.

The June 26th attack on a Fallujah city council meeting between local sheikhs and US military officials killed three Marines, two interpreters and twenty Iraqis. A few days after the bombing, the journalist who publishes under the name Zoriah posted some photographs of the scene on his blog at www.zoriah.net. A few hours later, a high-ranking public affairs official ordered him to remove the blog post. When Zoriah refused, he was told his “embed” had been terminated and he would be flown out of Iraq.

In his blog posting introducing the photographs, Zoriah wrote, “What I saw was abhorrently graphic, yet far too important for the world to ignore. I present images that provide an uncensored view of a terrible event, and some small measure of dignity to those who lost their lives.”

In a later posting, he wrote, “How can things change if all that comes out of Iraq are sanitized, white-washed images of war designed for mainstream media outlets who focus on making money, not on the quality and truth in what they report?”

After meeting with high-level officials in Iraq, Zoriah now retains his credentials, but he’s still barred from documenting US Marine operations.

Zoriah returned to the United States and joins me now from Littleton, Colorado. Welcome to Democracy Now!

ZORIAH: Thank you, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what happened? Talk about the day you photographed the—you took the photographs that you posted.

ZORIAH: Sure. It was actually my first day embedded with the Marine Corps. I had been in Iraq for several weeks already, documenting the situation from Sadr City with the US Army. It was the first day of my embed with the Marines, the morning of the 26th. We were on a security patrol in Anbar province when we received radio information that just down the street from where we were conducting a raid on a Iraqi home there had been some sort of massive blast.

We immediately grabbed our equipment, our body armor, our Kevlar and ran down the street about a block away from the location of the city council meeting. We started seeing people screaming and running and just general chaos. The soldier I was running next to and I looked on the ground, and we saw a human ear on the ground. A couple feet later, we saw what appeared to be possibly a skull cap with hair. And as we got closer to the building, we just saw more and more body parts and realized that what we were about to witness would be [audio dropped]—

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Zoriah. We may have just lost the feed to Littleton. It’s back. And I do just, though, want to warn our viewers that we are going to be showing some of his graphic photographs, and for our radio listeners, you can go to our website at democracynow.org. Zoriah, continue with your description.

ZORIAH: Yes. We walked around to the entrance of the building where they were holding the city council meeting that had suffered the attack. Upon walking through the door, it was just a scene of absolute horror. Twenty civilians, three Marines, several interpreters were basically just lying in pieces in the courtyard of this building. It was an open-air courtyard. The soldiers, as we went in, were, I think, in just as much shock as everyone else. Several were throwing up. It was just extremely graphic.

And I realized at that moment that it was a situation that I could very likely be removed from, knowing, you know, stories that several other journalists have told about trying to photograph under similar circumstances while embedded and that the soldiers, the Marines, really do not like this kind of information, especially when it’s their own that have been injured or killed, to be released.

So I immediately began to take as many pictures as I possibly could, which was a very good decision, because I was only allowed about five, maybe seven, minutes inside where the bomb blast had happened before I was told that I needed to leave the area. I was told it was for my own safety. I protested. I said, “I’m not worried about my own safety. I’m here to do my job. I’m here to document.” But they insisted.

I ended up spending about an hour and a half or two hours locked inside of an armored vehicle, and I was finally allowed back into the scene and told at that point that I was not allowed to take anymore photos. I could stand by if I wanted to and be witness, but I was not allowed to use my camera anymore at that point. My protests didn’t do anything. I tried to have them radio a higher command or a public affairs officer to, you know, get verification that I was allowed to take pictures of the scene, but that didn’t happen.

Later that day, when we returned to a base, one of the Marines told me that they needed to have me erase my memory cards and actually hand my memory cards over at that point. I refused to do that. And it was not taken any further at that point.

I waited the twenty-four hours for family to be notified, as per the media ground rules for embedded photographers or journalists. You’re not allowed to release any information until family has been notified. The next day, Friday the 27th, we got word that all the family members had been notified, and I still spent the three next days giving some extra time, knowing that the images I had taken were extremely graphic and would be hard for people to look at, and organizing my post on my blog so that if the family members or anyone else that knew these men happen to go on the blog by accident, they would actually have to read a disclaimer and go to a second page where the images were below the fold of the screen and there were more warnings about the graphic content and about the event.

I ended up posting the blog on the evening of the 30th, and within several hours after posting it, I received a call from senior PAO officials, public affairs officials, saying that they wanted my blog taken down completely, the entire blog, which I immediately refused to do. And within ten minutes of refusing to remove my blog, they called back. They asked one more time.

I asked them again what the reason for asking me to remove my blog was, and at the time they said that I had showed Marines, injured or killed Marines, and that they were identified as Marines because of their camouflage pants and their shoes. And I said, “Well, there’s nothing in the embed rules that say you can’t show someone who’s identifiable as a Marine. It says no identifiable features, you know, to identify that person from, you know, another person. But actually showing an injured soldier or a dead soldier is not something that is barred in the embed rules.” They claimed it was. They claimed that I had signed something that said that this was the case. I knew that I hadn’t.

And within several minutes, I had gotten word that they were arranging a special convoy to remove me from the area and take me to Camp Fallujah, where there was a flight to bring me to the Green Zone and away from all Marine installations.

Upon arrival at Camp Fallujah, I ended up being held there for three days. They had given me armed escorts, because they feared that people on the base were so angry that I could potentially be in harm’s way. The reason they claim they kept me at the base was to meet General Kelly, who was the senior commander there who wanted to speak with me about the photos I had taken and ask me again to take them down. The two times that I went to meet with him, he left me waiting, the first time for two hours, the first time for about—or the second time for about a half an hour, and never showed up.

On the third day, they arranged a special helicopter flight to the Green Zone, at which time I was flown out of the Marines’ area of operation, and I assumed at that point that I would be continuing my embeds with the US Army, because most journalists who do get banned or barred because of similar circumstances end up just going on another embed immediately with a different branch of the military or sometimes just in a different area. Upon arrival in Baghdad, I was told that the Marines were pushing for my complete blacklisting in all DOD operations, any military operations, and that I would have to stand by until the situation was resolved.

Three days later, I had a—was invited to a dinner at the US embassy in Baghdad, where I was told that senior public affairs officials, basically as high up in the chain of command as you can get in Iraq, had been debating my case and had been listening to the claims that the Marines had made and had not found anything that I had done to be a breach of my contract, a breach of the embed rules, and that they would allow me to keep my credentials, although there was nothing they could do as far as the Marines go. My ban and barment from the Marine Corps stood, and there was no way that that would be lifted.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Zoriah, who was an embedded photographer with the Marines when he photographed a suicide bombing. The letter that you got giving the reasons for your dismissal said “you photographed the remains of U.S. soldiers,” “you posted these images along with detailed commentary,” and “by posting the images and your commentary you violated 14 H and O of the news media agreement you signed.” In addition, the letter said, “By providing detailed information of the effectiveness of the attack and response of US forces to it, you have put all US forces in Iraq at greater risk for harm.” Your response?

ZORIAH: Well, first of all, I did not report or show anything that had not already been shown by the New York Times, Washington Post, Reuters, the day after the attack. There were detailed reports of the attack on all major news media, even within hours of the attack. And none of the information I had given presented any new information and definitely no information that could be used by an enemy to plan an attack.

And I’ve received, since this incident, several emails from military public affairs officers and former military public affairs officers from around the world who have said that they’ve reviewed this extensively and that there’s absolutely nothing in my photographs or in my post that could be used by the enemy to gather any sort of information and that the clause that they actually used to formally disembed me with is primarily used for people who try to photograph vehicles that have been disabled by IEDs or EFPs, explosively formed projectiles, and that this clause was made so that people would not take images of these vehicles and thus giving the enemy specific information as to how their roadside bombs were disabling vehicles and, you know, if the placement was correct and how to better place their weapons to cause more damage.

AMY GOODMAN: Zoriah, did they want you to erase your memory card?

ZORIAH: Yes, that was the day of the attack. They asked me to erase my memory card. They actually asked me to erase my memory card and then wanted my cameras and memory cards handed over to them. That was the first thing I refused to do. They didn’t end up pushing that issue. I believe whoever it was that was pushing me to do that was told by someone else that that was absolutely not acceptable; otherwise, I don’t know why they didn’t push the issue more that day.

AMY GOODMAN: What was the response of the Marines on the ground, of the soldiers that you were embedded with, of the Marines that you were embedded with, to what you were doing, to your photographs and to your posting them?

ZORIAH: Well, you know, I mean, we live on a daily basis with these guys. We—you know, we develop relationships with them. We sleep in the same room. We live in the same rooms. We travel in vehicles. And, you know, we had actually, in a way, bonded through this event. It was such a, you know, horrific thing for all of us to witness, that I felt very close to the men in my platoon, and I think they felt the same way about me.

And one of the things that I did in the three days before I posted the blog, after the families had been notified, was work and speak with the Marines that I was staying with, asking them what they felt about the photos, if they felt that, you know, they were offensive, if they felt they were in bad taste, if they felt the post in general, you know, would be hurtful to family members, if they thought, you know, it did more good than bad. And I had the overwhelming support, and I continue to get letters from Marines all over the world who are pledging their support and saying that they think that my being barred from the Marine Corps was absolutely out of line.