The story began Thursday when the free speech website thememoryhole.org published what it said were images of the coffins of U.S. military personnel who had died while on duty in Iraq. The images had been released to the site because of a Freedom of Information Act request.

However, eagle-eyed NASA-watchers as well as NASA employees recognized the images to be from February 2003, when the remains of the space shuttle's crew were brought to the Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware.