In an April 12 story, Boston Globe staff writer Bryan Bender reported from Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Del., the place where American soldiers killed overseas enter the county. "The coffins are draped with flags, carried off the planes, and transported by van to the mortuary that sits next to the giant airstrip, as the chaplain recites a short prayer," Bender wrote. "It is a ritual that is familiar to all who work at Dover, but one the public does not get to see."

Today, however, readers of the Washington Post, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, among many other papers, saw recently released images of flag-draped coffins in Dover.

In the Globe story last week, Bender wrote: "Here, people speak of 'the Dover test,' Pentagon parlance for how many casualties Americans can stomach before they begin in large numbers to question whether the cause is worth so many American lives." But, he noted, "The Defense Department continues to ban any photographs or observation of the bodies returning from overseas."

Dover Air Force Base spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jon Anderson told Bender: "We don't let the media come on the base to perform the `Dover test,' " ... "That is Department of Defense policy."

The Pentagon has said that its embargo on photos from Dover is meant to protect family and loved ones of the soldiers in the coffins. But many observers have criticized that policy, saying that the public deserves a fuller image of the impact of war.

During an April 14 panel discussion in New York, co-sponsored by the Dart Center, psychiatrist and author Robert Jay Lifton said that images from Dover would help provide context for other war images (such as those of the burned corpses of Americans in Fallujah).

"I think it's crucial that editors consider sensitivity to families and survivors, but to use that argument to support governmental censorship of photographs is dangerous," said the Dart Center's Meg Spratt, whose research has focused on uses and interpretations of photographs. She noted that it's difficult to predict the consequences of publishing such politically charged photos, as they are likely to have very different meanings for different viewers based upon their own previously held beliefs.

The photos published today were made available through a Freedom of Information Act request by Russ Kick of www.thememoryhole.org (note: the web site's server has been slow today). Kick acquired 361 photos, which he has made available to the media.

The release of the photos comes after The Seattle Times published a photo on Sunday, April 18, showing the interior of a cargo plane filled with flag-draped coffins. That photo was shot by an employee of a company contracted by the Department of Defense. The employee has since been fired.