US ordered to explain withholding of Iraq and Afghanistan torture photos

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

Spencer Ackerman in New York - Tuesday 21 October 2014 22.02 BST

The Obama administration has until early December to detail its reasons for withholding as many as 2,100 graphic photographs depicting US military torture of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, a federal judge ordered on Tuesday.

By 12 December, Justice Department attorneys will have to list, photograph by photograph, the government’s rationale for keeping redacted versions of the photos unseen by the public, Judge Alvin Hellerstein instructed lawyers. But any actual release of the photographs will come after Hellerstein reviews the government’s reasoning and issues another ruling in the protracted transparency case.

=snip=

At issue is the publication of as many as 2,100 photographs of detainee abuse, although the government continues not to confirm the precise number. Said to be even more disturbing than the infamous Abu Ghraib photographs that sparked a global furor in 2004, the imagery is the subject of a transparency lawsuit that both the Bush and Obama administrations, backed by the US Congress, have strenuously resisted.

In 2009, US president Barack Obama reversed his position on the photographs’ release and contended they would “further inflame anti-American opinion and … put our troops in greater danger”. That year, Congress passed a law, the Protected National Security Documents Act, intended to aid the government in keeping the images from the public. Two secretaries of defense, Robert Gates in 2009 and Leon Panetta in 2012, have issued assertions that US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq would be placed at risk by the disclosure.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/oct/21/us-withholding-torture-photographs-iraq-afghanistan?CMP=fb_gu

[Fred Sanders]

1. If you destroy or hide the evidence, then there is none and no one gets held accountable beyond

the lower ranks.
Seriously, is this the only evidence being withheld?

[George II]

2. Hmmmm, the Guardian?

Why doesn't the judge check with Snowden or Greenwald, I'm sure THEY have all the photographs dated, numbered, and indexed, just waiting to dole them out!!!

[BrotherIvan]

5. If that's the talking point, it's really really bad

[woo me with science]

6. Wow. What an embarrassing post for you. nt

[Turborama]

11. lol

[Hissyspit]

8. Oh good grief.

[billhicks76]

12. Pathetic

Why not check with NSA since they watch everything anyway or is that just on US citizens. Obama covering up Bush's evil acts is disgusting.

[grahamhgreen]

16. Ad hominem FAIL. Do you believe torture should go unprosecuted?

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[EndElectoral]

4. Troubling

Torture is torture. The Third Reich could have used the same argument that release of torture occurring in concentration camps may have placed German troops at risk by disclosure.

Torture should not be hidden, but exposed.

"In October 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate agreed on a proposal to give the Pentagon authority to ban the release of torture photographs or other images, in any medium, produced at Abu Ghraib, other prisons and any other circumstances involving American soldiers or contractors working for the U.S. government. The sweeping ban would be a unique exemption under the Freedom of Information Act, giving the military the power to decide what images to ban and for how long. The text of the legislation follows."

http://middleeast.about.com/od/usmideastpolicy/qt/torture-photos-ban.htm

[blkmusclmachine]

7. It's known as the "Looking Forward " defense. See, it never happened!!!

[KingCharlemagne]

9. Ancient history now, I suppose, but there was a story floating around back in 2004-05 that

female detainees at Abu Ghraib were smuggling messsages out asking the Iraqi Resistance to mortar the female wing of the facility because the torture\sexual sadism and abuse by American troops and mercenaries had brought such shame upon the female detainees.

I wonder if there are any photographs of that?

Seymour Hersh alleged -- although the allegations came and went so fast it almost seemed a dream of the nightmare variety -- that American military personnel and mercenaries were sodomizing Iraqi children in front of their parents in an attempt to compel the parents to speak.

I wonder if there are any photographs of that?

But, hey, not to worry, we've got to look forward into the brave, new world that awaits, not backward. Because, when all is said and done, torture is as American as cherry pie.

As sad as the extra-judicial execution of Michael Brown is and as infuriating as the racist responses to his murder, a key part of America died at Abu Ghraib. We didn't just lose the Iraq War, see, we lost our soul. As Charlie Pierce of Esquire has noted, Obama campaigned on offering us an antidote to Bush, but all he really gave us was an anesthetic. And anesthetics eventually wear off.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/obama-cia-john-brennan-031414

[OnyxCollie]

10. Most Transparent Administration EVAH!

You can see right through them.

[BellamyMillBernays]

13. Is an explanation needed?

It's understood, if people see the blood and guts that are spilled in their name, with their dollars, they will cease to support, and VIOLENTLY REJECT SUCH USE OF THEIR RESOURCES.

Money for schools, not guns!

[countryjake]

14. K&R!

[G_j]

15. wouldn't want evidence on the public record

while the criminals are getting paid to offer commentary on TV.