HILLARY CLINTON IMAGE REMOVED FROM ICONIC SITUATION ROOM PHOTO BY HASIDIC NEWSPAPER. UPDATE: PAPER APOLOGIZES TO WHITE HOUSE.

First Posted: 05/ 9/11 07:17 AM ET Updated: 05/ 9/11 01:21 PM

Verne Strickland Blogmaster

The original photo is one for the ages -- Obama, Biden, Gates, Hillary Clinton and others -- frozen in awe and rapt attention as they watched stunning live satellite images of Navy Seal Team Six completing their audacious mission -- killing super-terrorist Osama bin Laden in his long-secret lair in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Nothing could be added to this classic Situation Room candid photograph -- but something was taken from the image -- Hillary Clinton, her hand over her mouth in a gesture of total immersion in the historic event.

Her concern and apprehension seem almost too much for her to bear. Her image, and that of another woman on hand, were removed by the ultra-orthodox Jewish publication Der Tzitung, published in Brooklyn, New York.

This curious and frustrating bit of editing (call it "destruction") has to amount to the ultimate 21st Century censorship of a once-in-a-lifetime candid picture of a watershed moment.

The explanation for the alteration is offered below:

A Brooklyn-based Hasidic newspaper removed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and another woman from the now-iconic photo of the Obama national security team watching the raid that killed Osama bin Laden from the White House Situation Room.

 The original photo, taken as the raid was occurring, famously shows Clinton in the center of the room, with her hand over her mouth. 

 But the newspaper Der Tzitung, described by the Jewish Week as "ultra-Orthodox," has a policy of never printing photos of women in its pages because it thinks they could be sexually suggestive.

Thus, Clinton and counterterrorism director Audrey Tomason, who was seen standing at the back of the room, were removed from the picture.

The blogger Failed Messiah was the first to notice the Photoshopping.

See the Photoshopped version:

See the original:







VS: SO IS A PICTURE REALLY WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS? THE MUTILATED VERSION OF THIS ONE MIGHT BE WORTH A HUNDRED OR SO AT BEST. I NEVER THOUGHT OF HILLARY AS BEING SEXUALLY SUGGESTIVE. BUT SHE DOES SEEM QUITE CUTE AND VULNERABLE HERE. WOULDN'T YOU AGREE? SHE SHOULD GET CAUGHT OFF GUARD MORE OFTEN. MAKES HER APPEAR QUITE HUGGABLE. SHE NEEDS THAT. WE ALL DO.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/09/hillary-clinton-der-tzitung-removed-situation-room_n_859254.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl9|sec1_lnk3|61653

Jewish Paper Sorry for Cutting Hillary Out of White House Photo

Monday, 09 May 2011 08:02 PM

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NEW YORK (AP) — An Orthodox Jewish newspaper on Monday apologized for digitally deleting Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton from a photo of President Barack Obama and his staff monitoring the raid by Navy SEALs that killed Osama bin Laden.

The Brooklyn weekly Di Tzeitung, which says it doesn't publish images of women, printed the doctored photo Friday. It issued a statement saying its photo editor hadn't read the "fine print" accompanying the White House photo that forbade any changes. The newspaper said it has sent its "regrets and apologies" to the White House and the Department of State.

A second woman, Counterterrorism Director Audrey Tomason, also was deleted from the photo, which captured a historic moment in the decade-long U.S. effort to apprehend the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Di Tzeitung said it has a "long standing editorial policy" of not publishing women's images. It explained that its readers "believe that women should be appreciated for who they are and what they do, not for what they look like, and the Jewish laws of modesty are an expression of respect for women, not the opposite."

The weekly said Clinton, a Democrat who represented New York state as a U.S. senator, had won overwhelming majorities in the Orthodox Jewish communities because they "appreciated her unique capabilities, talents and compassion for all."

Di Tzeitung, published in Yiddish, is sold at city newsstands, especially in Brooklyn's Williamsburg and Borough Hall neighborhoods, which have many Orthodox Jewish residents. It acknowledged it "should not have published the altered picture."

An editor at a Manhattan weekly that has covered Jewish issues since the 1890s addressed why the Brooklyn newspaper might have altered the image. The Forward's managing editor, Lil Swanson, said that removing women from photos is "in keeping with" the belief of some ultra-Orthodox Jews that showing images of the female form is "immodest."

In the original photo of the White House Situation Room, Obama and his national security team are gathered around a table, following in real time the operation that culminated in the killing of bin Laden at his Pakistani compound on May 1.

The White House, which issued the photo, had no comment Monday on the removal of the women from it.
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Di Tzeitung: http://www.ditzeitung.com