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Secretary Gates Signs Order Barring Release of Torture Photos
Pursuant to new powers delegated to him by Congress, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has executed an order blocking the release of photos depicting the torture of detainees. In doing so, it becomes highly unlikely that the Supreme Court will further consider making the photos public, as a lower court had ordered.
In a new supplemental brief [PDF link] filed with the high court, the administration's attorneys argue that the new law Congress passed to allow Gates this authority effectively exempts the photos from the Freedom of Information Act, therefore invalidating an earlier lawsuit.
"It now seems likely that today's action will put an end to the issue, making it unnecessary for the court to hear the case," MSNBC reported.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which sought the photos' release, had urged Secretary Gates to release the photos. In an open letter [PDF link], the ACLU said the images must be seen because they show the "pervasiveness" of abuse across Iraq and Afghanistan and that it was "aberrational."
"The government has previously asserted that disclosing these photographs poses risks in part because it is a 'particularly critical time' in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan," ACLU attorneys Jameel Jaffer and Alexander A. Abdo noted at the letter's conclusion. "We accordingly ask that you review any decision to withhold any photographs every ninety days to account for changing circumstances."
"In order to withhold the photos, Gates simply had to certify, as he did in the court filing, that 'public disclosure of these photographs would endanger citizens of the United States, members of the United States Armed Forces, or employees of the United States Government deployed outside the United States,'" Mother Jones reporter Nick Baumann noted. "In other words, their release had to endanger someone, somewhere. And in the unlikely event that Gates had to stretch the truth to make that certification, it wouldn't matter, since there's no provision in the law that allows any court to review Gates' determination or rule on whether it was truthful."
In a release condemning the president's signature of the law allowing Gates to block the photos, Jaffer continued: "Secretary Gates should be guided by 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 would ultimately be far more damaging to national security than their disclosure. The last administration's decision to endorse torture undermined the United States' moral authority and compromised its security. A failure to fully confront the abuses of the last administration will only compound these harms."
The Supreme Court is expected to react by Monday.
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18 Comments so far
Show Allwe'll just have to use our imaginations.
And that imagination is probably worse than anything in those photos. I hope, cause my imagination can be pretty nasty at times.
If one imagines seizure, one seizes.
If one imagines pain and not something-about-pain or the-fact-of-pain, one feels pain, fresh and bright.
One can imagine photos, but can any of us imagine the events those photos represent?
One would not be sitting in one's chair as I am, typing.
[One can imagine photos, but can any of us imagine the events those photos represent?]
Yes, or if you cannot imagine them you can do a google search for photos that are similar, but much more tame. Just search for photos that involve SM/BD, then remind yourself that the people in those porn pics are doing it voluntarily, they like that sort of thing, and although many of the same things were done to the detainees, none of the bottoms in Iraq consented to be tortured. Also remember that the tops over there did get away with killing the odd bottom, and they had no 'safe' words, nor did they have any restraint on getting 'carried away' with their 'pleasures'. When the bottom in Iraq was forced to lick the dogshit from the boots of the yank soldier in uniform, he might have been killed had he/she refused.
Yes, I can imagine what was done in those photos. It's the major reason I don't play in the BDSM community anymore.
GOP DEM Un. Con. Stitutional!!!
Keeping criminal acts secret only guarantees more bloodshed in the future.
Those who help cover-up torture will be the ones most responsible for the future acts of violence against Americans at home and around the world.
Burying the crime of torture is treason.
May all those who participate rot in prison.
They are the true enemies of the state and the greatest threat to our safety and security.
HR 2892, Sec 565 was passed by the Democratic Congress in October (even Kucinich and Massa voted for this). Another example of Democrats protecting the Bush administration and creating more government secrecy. Key paragraphs:
(1) PROTECTED DOCUMENT- The term `protected document' means any record--
(A) for which the Secretary of Defense has issued a certification, as described in subsection (d), stating that disclosure of that record would endanger citizens of the United States, members of the United States Armed Forces, or employees of the United States Government deployed outside the United States; and
(B) that is a photograph that--(i) was taken during the period beginning on September 11, 2001, through January 22, 2009; and
(ii) relates to the treatment of individuals engaged, captured, or detained after September 11, 2001, by the Armed Forces of the United States in operations outside of the United States.
(2) PHOTOGRAPH- The term `photograph' encompasses all photographic images, whether originals or copies, including still photographs, negatives, digital images, films, video tapes, and motion pictures.
(1) IN GENERAL- For any photograph described under subsection (c)(1), the Secretary of Defense shall issue a certification if the Secretary of Defense determines that disclosure of that photograph would endanger citizens of the United States, members of the United States Armed Forces, or employees of the United States Government deployed outside the United States.
there is one picture i would like to see - and one that the nation needs if it intends to survive the reign of these psychopathic evil and paranoid men who run the nwo death machine that used to be called the american government - that would be the whole lot of them both bush's, cheney, gates, rumsfeld, kristol, and many more hanging from the gallow's pole for being traitors to the united states of america and the constitution for which it stands
i would frame that one
its not a solution but it is a good start
i foresee it as a nuremberg type trial that would be a great civics lesson for the citizens of this once great once free country
its an enema that we really need...
Article 1, section 1 of the Constitution says "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives."
It doesn't say "unless they get lazy and pass them off to committees or executive departments like the FCC, or unless they get caught up in the culture of fear and pass them off to the Secretary of Defense, or unless they get bribed and pass them off to lobbyists."
When Congress gives up its legislative powers, it's an insult to citizens who only had the very faint power of voting to begin with and now don't even have that; and the country ceases to have even a vague semblance of a republic.
How come obama did not sign this order?Tony
Tony-- Monarchs don't place the Royal signature upon such orders.
The monarch, even a mere two-term monarch, need only place a finger aside his nose for the briefest of moments, secure in the certainty that his minions will do his bidding.
Not that there's the slightest chance that the Monarch will be called to account-- he made sure that the Constitutional checks and balances put in place for such purpose are rusted out, bent back on their hinges, or wedged open.
But the royalists consider it prudent to keep the custom of "culpable deniability"-- it's a Royal Belt and Suspenders approach.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Are these the Royal Belt and Suspenders that match the King's New Clothes?
Those are they.
Or should that be "they are those"?
· Yr Obd't Servant
Obedient Servant;would that genuflecting minion acompany said royalty to the bidet for future considerations?Tony
The time is long past when I used to pretend I enjoyed riding around town for hours on end with no destination. It was just a matter of time before another car full of similarly dimwitted little squirts about our age would get the idea that we were planning some trick to make them look foolish, or do them harm.
I feel like I've been hanging around a burger joint when three of my "friends" came in, wasted some time with me and I wound up leaving with them.
When the car starts moving the driver says "What are we gonna do about this situation?"
"What situation"? I ask.
The only answer I get is from another accomplice: "These fuckers are from out of town; they won't be so easy to talk down next time we see them."
"What's going on?" I ask
This time another of my "friends" starts making a list of the weapons in the car and who should use each. "A chain, the tire iron, a pocket knife..."
"Just let me out of here" I finally say.
"You think you will stand a better chance alone?"
These leaders of ours are supposed to be working for us, but they are determined to keep us in the dark until THEY, without any input from us, start pushing buttons to defend the great USA when Pakistan or North Korea, or Russia finally has had enough of their doings.
considering that the US leadership, punditry, media and all spout so easily such phrases or words as:
"Shielding terrorists"
"sympathizing with the bad guys"
"aiding and abetting criminals"
"protecting those who hate us". ./....etc..
it seems the irony escapes these people, that such phrases are at least equally , even more so, applicalbe to themselves:
"GATES - SHIELDING and PROTECTING CRIMINALS and TORTURERS"...
"OBAMA aiding and abetting War Criminals".
"USA CONGRESS sympathizing with LAW Breakers".......
as in the old saying:
"SWEEPING DIRT UNDER THE RUG"....
"HIDING SKELETONS in the CLOSET"....
"SPRAYING PERFUME ON ROTTING CARCASS".
more cover ups for our violent society! remember powell at the united nations back a few years ago? he had to relocate his press conference because the gigantic mural of "guernica" loomed in the background. because powell was then about to dwarf guernica's destruction through the "shock and awe" he was preparing for baghdad, he didn't want his press conference to become the picture of irony. and then there was ashcroft, who didn't mind bloodying suspected enemies, but winced at the thought of the topless sculpture of lady liberty in the backdrop of his press conferences. so, he draped her. well, we're the same society that fined cbs $500,000 for an inadvertant , two-second display of janet jackson's breast, while those red staters who turned the channell found more satisfaction in watching nearly nude men pummell each other into submission in octagonal cages. no on ever fined them for their latent homoerotic fervor.
May the court decide to not release Robert Gates.
Justice must pertain to another dimension.