Judge to decide on release of new Iraq prison abuse photos (today)

[katinmn]

http://www.oxfordpress.com/news/content/shared/news/nation/stories/08/15ABUSE_PHOTOS.html
Judge to decide on release of new Iraq prison abuse photos
By REBECCA CARR
Cox News Service
Monday, August 15, 2005

WASHINGTON — A showdown is set for Monday in a New York federal court over the Defense Department's refusal to release a new batch of photographs and videos showing U.S. soldiers abusing detainees in Iraq.

The 87 photographs and four videos were taken by Spc. Joseph M. Darby, the Army military policeman who ignited an international maelstrom last year when he turned over photos to authorities that revealed soldiers mistreating, sexually humiliating and threatening inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad.

Government lawyers say publicly releasing the images would "endanger the safety and lives of individuals, including soldiers and civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere," according to legal documents filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The American Civil Liberties Union, lead counsel for a coalition of five civil liberties and veterans groups, is asking U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein to reject what it sees as the government's last-ditch effort to keep images from Abu Ghraib from the public.

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