WAR: Navy SEALs Sue AP Over Iraq Prison Photos

Six members and two wives of a U.S. Navy SEAL unit have sued The Associated Press for publishing pictures of them with Iraqi prisoners. They claim that the news agency endangered their lives and invaded their privacy by their actions. The suit also claims that the author of the article took the digital images from a wives personal digital photo album that required a password to view.




Putting aside for a minute how the reporter came to posses the pictures (I do not have enough information on either side to answer that) I do think it is reasonable for our special operation / covert operations people to expect some degree of privacy. This was not a criminal investigation or the like and identifying the soldiers pretty much ends their careers in the cover field.

The photos were posted on a website which was freely accessible to the public.

There was no password required on the albums when the reporter accessed them

The initial AP story, transmitted Dec. 3, noted that the photos were found on the commercial photo-sharing Web site Smugmug.com using the search engine Google, and were not password-protected until after the reporter purchased copies online and began inquiries.

I think they're fair game if there was no copyright on the photos.

Bummer, these guys were special ops and two of the women have been harrased following the article. If he got them via legal means, then they do't seem to have much of a suit then.

they should sue their wifes for exposing them

[edit on 29-12-2004 by Countermeasures]

Originally posted by FredT
Six members and two wives of a U.S. Navy SEAL unit have sued The Associated Press for publishing pictures of them with Iraqi prisoners. They claim that the news agency endangered their lives

Navy SEALS aren't secret agents

and invaded their privacy by their actions.

This is not a private action.

Six members of a Navy special forces unit and two Navy wives sued The Associated Press on Tuesday, saying the news agency endangered the servicemen's lives and invaded their privacy by publishing photos showing the men interacting with Iraqi prisoners.

Honestly, what a bunch of dirtbags. They torture and humiliate these prisoners, a horrible breach of their responsibilities, and then sue a newspaper for invasion of their privacy? Hypocrits.

The lawsuit says the agency erred by not obscuring the identity of the six SEALs
Maybe if they had been walking around with hoods over their heads then they'd've been able to torture and humiliate people anonymously. This is like a criminal complaing that his picture is in the newspaper.

Putting aside for a minute how the reporter came to posses the pictures (I do not have enough information on either side to answer that) I do think it is reasonable for our special operation / covert operations people to expect some degree of privacy.

Not when they are breaking the law. Navy seals are special ops, but they aren't 'secret agents', they don't go undercover and whatnot. Plus, these guys should be, and probably will be, kicked out of the military, and certainly aren't trustworthy enough to be sent on any 'missions' now.

This was not a criminal investigation or the like and identifying the soldiers pretty much ends their careers in the cover field.

They aren't CIA officers or undercover special operations units, they're seals, they perform a certain set of tasks, they have no more expectation of secrecy of identity than any other military personel. They should be begging the public's forgiveness and mercy, not suing a newspaper that exposed their activity.

So its ok for the families to reciev threating phone calls?
They done wrong, but are thier families supposed to be held accountable?
Countries do worse in war, yet these seals are insulted and jeered at by the public for doing what they where ordered to do?

Sorry Fred T, but please explain to me how showing their pictures ends their SEAL carreer. If you raise a fuss about this, then why not raise a fuss when the television show COPS shows suspects being arrested on television. Nobody who sees the fuzzy pictures from the web, is gonna recognize any of these thugs on the street.

Originally posted by groingrinder
Sorry Fred T, but please explain to me how showing their pictures ends their SEAL carreer. If you raise a fuss about this, then why not raise a fuss when the television show COPS shows suspects being arrested on television. Nobody who sees the fuzzy pictures from the web, is gonna recognize any of these thugs on the street.

Well thier wives let out information about thier activiites in iraq.
There fore compromiseing the mission, therefore ruining the operation.
There fore cant be trusted with any more information back to gunnery crews if your lucky.

I'm trying to figure out why the wives thought these pics were so neat they'd want to share them with the wide-wide-world.

*can we say dysfunctional?*