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Supreme Court Delay May Help Keep Detainee Abuse Pics Forever Sealed
The United States Supreme Court granted a request Tuesday to delay its decision on whether the Obama administration may continue to block the release of images depicting the torture of terror war detainees in U.S. custody.
The United States Supreme Court granted a request Tuesday to delay its decision on whether the Obama administration may continue to block the release of images depicting the torture of terror war detainees in U.S. custody. (Image: Raw Story) The decision to delay comes as Congress and the Obama administration
appear to have agreed on the passage of a new law that would delegate
all authority over the photos to the Secretary of Defense, effectively
removing the courts from the process.
"The Obama administration believes giving the imminent grant of authority over the release of such pictures to the defense secretary would short-circuit a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act," the Associated Press reported on Saturday.
"The ACLU said the administration's about-face 'makes a mockery' of Obama's campaign promise of greater transparency and accountability, and damages efforts to hold accountable those responsible for abusing prisoners," CNN added on Tuesday.
The photos relate to abuse alleged to have taken place between 2001 and 2005 in Abu Ghraib and six other prisons. Some of the photos were said to depict rape and sexual abuse, though the Pentagon has denied this.
Some of the images depict U.S. soldiers pointing guns at the heads of prisoners. Another, according to Solicitor General Elena Kagan, shows a soldier "holding 'a broom as if sticking its end into the rectum of a restrained detainee,' Kagan said, quoting from an investigation report prepared by the Pentagon," AP reported.
Justices were expected to discuss the case during a closed-door session on Friday, but a letter from the solicitor general may have played a role in their decision to delay that hearing.
"Kagan's letter advised the court about Congress' 'recent and significant legislative developments,'" Fox News noted. "Her request was unusual in that she asked the justices to delay consideration of the government's own case. But the letter shows the Obama administration's top priority is keeping the pictures sealed - and that it believes that can be better accomplished by legislative means than court action."
The Pentagon said US military commanders had sternly warned the president that the photos could be used as a recruiting tool by extremists and jeopardize the safety of US troops. Federal courts have ruled against the government in a series of decisions on the matter after the ACLU sued to force disclosure.
"Congress should not give the government the authority to hide evidence of its own misconduct, and if it does grant that authority, the Secretary of Defense should not invoke it," ACLU National Security Project Director Jameel Jaffer said in a press release. "If this shameful provision passes, Secretary Gates should take into account the importance of transparency to the democratic process, the extraordinary importance of these photos to the ongoing debate about the treatment of prisoners, and the likelihood that the suppression of these photos will ultimately be far more damaging to our national security than their disclosure would be."
"The publication of these photos would not add any additional benefits to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals," President Obama said in May after reversing his promise to have the images released.
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12 Comments so far
Show All"The Pentagon said US military commanders had sternly warned the president that the photos could be used as a recruiting tool by extremists and jeopardize the safety of US troops."
Yeah, better to leave it to their terrorist recruiters imaginations.....so its not the torture that recruits new terrorists, but just the PHOTOS of it....duh!
here is a great link...
http://www.thismodernworld.com/arc/2009/TMW2009-09-02colorlowrescopy.jpg
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
It remains absolutely dumbfounding to realize that the government tacitly asserts that global knowledge of the atrocities committed and shown in photographs somehow either never did or no longer exists in the consciousness of the rest of the world.
Once seen - those images and that knowledge never dies.
The rest of the world is comprised of a breadth of cultures and societies, many if not most of which do not focus their resources on death and control, but on the struggle to regain the footing of coexistence.
This goes beyond pain and horror of the atrocities and inhumanity. It is now asserted that it is not possible to speak of and show the truth for fear of the perspective from which the actions were generated. The government interest in essence fears its mirror image and attempts to play all against this hegenmonic mirror rhetoric that can do nothing but fail.
The whole truth and nothing but the truth does not in Obama's logic, "add any additional benefits to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals," .... to me is also the logic of someone who has something in their own past to hide.
In my experience with the MIC, they always have something on key leaders to compromise them if they don't go along with the racket of war. Then later, mystery murders of witnesses are used to remind key leaders to tow the line.
The only way to get over something and establish truth and justice, is to get it out.
I believe that the USA stands at the edge of rare moment of 'decision liability'.
If they make the wrong decisions they will be responsible for their own destruction and most likely at their own hands.
That the USA has engaged in the very same war crimes that they held others responsible for just 60 years ago, and now avoids responsibility for the same is not lost on the world.
The USA is not in any position to dictate to the world any longer. They have become weak and ineffective in all of their foreign policy, cannot win the wars that they start, cannot pay their debts for those wars, deliver death and destruction to the innocent where ever they go, and live the lies and deception that they themselves call others to responsibility for. They refuse to keep their treaties while holding others to theirs. They lie, cheat and steal with little or no remorse.
Their political system is controlled and owned by the Plutocratic Oligarchy with huge payments being made this very moment to the very people who created the problems in the first place; while thousands are loosing their homes after loosing their jobs, after loosing their liberties at the hands of the previous administrations criminals.
How much longer the world is willing to tolerate the USA is only a matter of time.
The USA could become a world leader overnight with the changes needed to become a leader by example. Whether they have the will, or the strength or the integrity; may remain an unanswered question without action--immediately.
"If the USA were another nation the USA would invade the USA to keep the world safe; and they would be justified."
Chains we can believe in.
camus13
As for torture---however that word has been parsed by the administration, we know torture has occured--Jean-Paul Sartre in response to Alleg's LaQuestion made a point ominously pertinent to us today:
In 1943, in the Rue Lauriston (the Gestapo headquarters in Paris), Frenchmen were screaming in agony and pain: all France could hear them. In those days the outcome of the war was uncertain and we did not want to think about the future. Only one thing seemed impossible in any circumstances: that one day men should be made to scream by those acting in our name.
Wonderful point well made, Jill. The photos are indeed evidence of crime, just as the records the Nazis kept were evidence of crime, and were used to hang or imprison the ones responsible.
Indeed let's do what we can to see that one day these pieces of evidence will help convict the highly-placed criminals in the US, UK, etc.
This is obstructing justice. Time for inquest. Let's support the ACLU, who are spearheading this, and work to dump incumbents.
One can't escape the conclusion that the photos are being kept from the U.S. public because of the reaction they would cause in the U.S. For example, they might prompt more U.S. citizens to call for prosecuting Bush administration officials for instigating the crimes shown in the photographs. As mujeriego October 14th, 2009 11:44 am points out, releasing the photographs wouldn't significantly affect terrorists' recruiting based on U.S. torture of detainees. The Obama administration seems unwilling to believe terrorists are smart enough to know what happened without actually seeing pictures of it. In any case, photos to help them recruit are already available; I've seen all I want/need to see on the Internet.
Bardamu and Jill imply that the proposed legislation would prevent the photographs being used as evidence in trials, should any take place, of Bush officials. There's a difference between releasing photographs to the public and using them in trials. For example, gruesome photographs and child pornography are used in trials but not released to the general public; child pornography can't be released. Is the same going to be true regarding the torture photographs if the proposed law passes?
comment withdrawn
· Yr Obd't Servant
Obama says "The publication of these photos would not add any additional benefits to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals"
All ordinary street level murders, rapes and robberies are both ...
1. carried out in the past (duh)
2. committed by a small number of individuals
If Joe Blow and Moe Schmo allegedly committed a crime, the job of the justice system is to find the facts and follow up. Suppressing evidence would not add any additional benefits to our understanding. Suppressing evidence is also known as a cover up and a wink wink signal that the behavior will be allowed in the future.
Joe