Judge orders US release of military detainee abuse photos

[Judi Lynn]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by DonViejo (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Associated Press

Judge orders US release of military detainee abuse photos
By JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press | March 20, 2015 | Updated: March 21, 2015 12:04am

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. must release photographs showing abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, a federal judge has ruled in a long-running clash over letting the world see potentially disturbing images of how the military treated prisoners.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein's ruling Friday gives the government, which has fought the case for over a decade, two months to decide whether to appeal before the photos could be released. The American Civil Liberties Union has been seeking to make them public in the name of holding government accountable.

The Defense Department is studying the ruling and will make any further responses in court, spokesman Lt. Col. Myles Caggins III said. ACLU representatives didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Friday night.

The ACLU has said the pictures "are manifestly important to an ongoing national debate about governmental accountability for the abuse of prisoners."


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Judge-orders-US-release-of-military-detainee-6149394.php

[napi21]

1. I'm torn between wanting this and not.

I want them released so the perps can be punished (Cheney & Shrub included), but I also don't want them released because I feel it do nothing but inflame the hatred of the US by everyone in the Middle East. Of course added to the "don't want list" is the fact that Cheney & Shrub will never be charged. What would really be gained by releasing them?

[Jefferson23]

8. I can understand your concerns to a point, but that ship sailed off quite awhile ago.

Best to let the world see our justice system won't cover up for the top dogs in our
government at the time this went down.

[BeanMusical]

2. That damn judge is a traitor!1!!

Meh:

[PoliticAverse]

3. "Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out." n/t

[Little Tich]

4. I'm curious about what's on those photos.

I want to know what kind of treatment these detainees actually got.

I mean, if no laws were broken, the photos can't be that bad...

Or can they....?

[Judi Lynn]

5. Government Ordered to Release 2,100 Pictures of Detainee Abuse

Government Ordered to Release 2,100 Pictures of Detainee Abuse
By Lauren Walker 3/20/15 at 6:50 PM

Filed Under: U.S., Iraq, Afghanistan, U.S. Military, FOIA

The U.S. government has 60 days to decide whether it will release an estimated 2,100 pictures depicting U.S. military abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan or appeal an order to do so, according to a decision handed down Friday by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in New York.

The case began in 2004 when the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued for the release of the photos under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A handful of images showing detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison surfaced in media reports that year—piles of naked bodies, detainees being led on leashes—and some of the remaining photographs are said to be even more disturbing. One image reportedly shows a female soldier pretending to sodomize a naked prisoner with a broom, while others allegedly depict U.S. troops pointing guns at detainees’ heads.

Since the ACLU first submitted its FOIA request, the Obama administration has supported the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's long-awaited “torture report,” which describes the harsh treatment of detainees at secret CIA prisons in devastating detail. But the government argues that the photographs in particular could further encourage attacks against U.S. personnel still in Afghanistan and Iraq and could be used by the Islamic State—the terrorist group commonly known as ISIS—as propaganda to encourage new membership.

Hellerstein first ruled in 2005 that the government had to release the photographs. But they remained behind closed doors for years as conditions in Iraq deteriorated and congressional fears about national security increased. In 2009, then-Iraqi president Nouri al-Maliki asked the U.S. to withold the images in order to avoid further destabalizing the country. That same year, Congress gave Secretary of Defense Robert Gates the ability to keep the images concealed for a maximum of three years if their release would endanger American lives. Gates used this newly bestowed power and former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta followed suit in 2012, saying that making them public would pose a threat to American lives.

More:
http://www.newsweek.com/government-ordered-release-2100-pictures-detainee-abuse-315680

[asiliveandbreathe]

6. Alvin Hellerstein - the judge

who kicked the hornets nest - what the hell does he think is going to happen....with the release of these photos/////

haven't we had enough..if it is prosecution of cheney and bush...use as evidence in court? - so be it..at least in that vein people who will be angered by the photos would have some semblance of balance..JUSTICE

If it is to further shake the hive as the neocons are doing..then NO and HELL NO!

[jtuck004]

7. Worrying about the effect of the pictures is a bit like saying a rape happened because of a dress.

The problem was the criminal behavior of people representing us, not pictures of it. Certainly, one could trot out the picture and expect a reaction. They could print the identical picture every year and expect a reaction. Problem is, they could also not print it, and still expect violence from people who can simply imagine the wrong that was done.

The real problem was the original crime, and sunlight is the only cure for this disease,

Lest anyone think otherwise, there is almost no place outside the U.S. that doesn't know most of the details of this. It's just the Americans who seem shocked by all the "revelations".

So bring them out. Maybe we won't have to go through it again.

[DonViejo]

9. Locking...

Duplicate of this post:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141045067