Stalinist

NEW ORLEANS, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. government agency leading the rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina said on Tuesday it does not want the news media to take photographs of the dead as they are recovered from the flooded New Orleans area.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, heavily criticized for its slow response to the devastation caused by the hurricane, rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats as they went out to search for storm victims.

An agency spokeswoman said space was needed on the rescue boats and that "the recovery of the victims is being treated with dignity and the utmost respect."

"We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media," the spokeswoman said in an e-mailed response to a Reuters inquiry.

The Bush administration also has prevented the news media from photographing flag-draped caskets of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, which has sparked criticism that the government is trying to block images that put the war in a bad light.

The White House is under fire for its handling of the relief effort, which many officials have charged was slow and bureacratic, contributing to the death and mayhem in New Orleans after the storm struck on Aug. 29. (Additional reporting by Deborah Charles)

This is one of the biggest news stories ever in the United States and it needs to be documented. I'm not talking about gratuitous and disturbing photos splashed all over front pages, but you cannot hide an entire nation from a truth.

You cannot function in a free society when the Government tells the press they cannot photograph scenes of a national disaster. That is clearly a fascist policy.

The ACLU, and the MSM needs to get their lawyers drafting lawsuits tonight in order to the file them in the morning.

It is painfully obvious that Bush is not doing this as some means of "honoring the dead". It's all about poll numbers.