Court Orders Government to Release Images Depicting Detainee Abuse (ACLU)

[Up2Late]

(This is a NEW ACLU Press Release, Which is related and the result referred to in the May 26, 2005 Press Release, which I posted about One Week ago. I heard about this during the NPR Hourly news update, If your favorite News source has nor reported this, you should send this to them and ask them to report it!)

A federal judge has ordered the Defense Department to turn over photographs and movies depicting detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the ACLU.

Federal Court Orders Government to Turn Over Videos and Photos Showing Detainee Abuse

June 2, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: [e-mail]

NEW YORK -- A federal judge has ordered the Defense Department to turn over dozens of photographs and four movies depicting detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq as part of an ongoing lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.

"These images may be ugly and shocking, but they depict how the torture was more than the actions of a few rogue soldiers," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "The American public deserves to know what is being done in our name. Perhaps after these and other photos are forced into the light of day, the government will at long last appoint an outside special counsel to investigate the torture and abuse of detainees."

The court order came in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the ACLU, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights to obtain documents and materials pertaining to the treatment of detainees held by American forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay.

Attorneys for the government had argued that turning over visual evidence of abuse would violate the United States’ obligations under the Geneva Conventions, but the ACLU said that obscuring the faces and identifiable features of the detainees would erase any potential privacy concerns. The court agreed.

"It is indeed ironic that the government invoked the Geneva Conventions as a basis for withholding these photographs," said Amrit Singh, a staff attorney at the ACLU. "Had the government genuinely adhered to its obligations under these Conventions, it could have prevented the widespread abuse of detainees held in its custody in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay."

The court order filed late yesterday requires the government by June 30 to reprocess and redact 144 detainee abuse photographs provided by Sergeant Joseph Darby to the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command. The order also requires the government to provide the court with an estimate of the length of time it will take to reprocess and redact four movies included as part of the Darby collection by June 10. The decision comes after the court privately viewed eight of the images from the Darby collection to determine whether the photographs should be released under the FOIA. The ACLU expects redacted versions of the photographs to be released within the next six weeks.

To date, more than 35,000 pages of documents have been released in response to the FOIA lawsuit. The ACLU has been posting these documents online at <http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia >.

The FOIA lawsuit is being handled by Lawrence Lustberg and Megan Lewis of the New Jersey-based law firm Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione, P.C. Other attorneys in the case are Amrit Singh, Jameel Jaffer and Judy Rabinovitz of the ACLU; Arthur N. Eisenberg and Beth Haroules of the NYCLU; and Barbara Olshansky of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

The court order is available at: <http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=1839... >

[SnowGoose]

1. Dammit, it's time for me to get off my duff, and send them some $

been meaning to for so long, I can't even remember.

[knowbody0]

2. me too

the ALCU and AI

[TahitiNut]

5. IMHO, if there's anything like a 'litmus test' for liberals, it's ....

... active support for the ACLU. Ever since they defended the Nazis' right to march in Skokie, they've been at the top of my (deontological) list. I know of no other organization as free of hypocrisy as the ACLU.

[Demit]

8. Wow! You sent me to the dictionary for deontological.

What a great word. Yes, that would describe them exactly. I remember having trouble with their decision at the time, but if any org has ethics that deal with "right action, moral obligation and the nature of duty", they're the one.

[VegasWolf]

9. "deontological", isn't that the problem Freepers have trying to eat corn?

[Maraya1969]

10. Yea me too - I wish people who use really big words would include

their definitions in their posts so I don't have to keep looking them up.

[Demit]

11. So you wish we'd all eschew obfuscation, huh? ;)

[leftchick]

13. bless you...

that was a sneeze right?

[Demit]

19. Actually it was on a t shirt I ordered once from a language magazine

called Verbatim. I like words, and I like irony, and boy I loved that t shirt back then.

[TahitiNut]

23. I've always loved "Eschew Obfuscation" ... and had the bumper sticker ...

... years and years ago. I think it was from the Utne Reader or some similar 'zine.

[VegasWolf]

15. I'd eschew the corn ifn I culd. n/t

[Maraya1969]

17. Yea, that too

[Maraya1969]

34. OK it's avoid confusion right?

[katty]

14. great match point-Geneva Conventions, indeed, it maybe irony

to the world-but it's an inside joke to the bushies-just like every other heinous act of treason.

[TahitiNut]

21. It's hard for me to find a synonym for deontological.

Once I discovered the term in my hop-skip-jump studies of ethics, I immediately fused it into my noggin ... since it so aptly characterized the development of my personal ethic. Like most infants, I started out as a consequentialist (teleological) - employing the "whatever works" trial-and-error approach. As an empiricist in my schooling preferences, I gravitated to consequentialism -- until I finally realized that foresight (combined with the Law of Unintended Consequnces) was flawed and overwhelmingly subject to the delusions of rationalization. I've gotten to the point that I tend to view consequentialists as ethical adolescents. Thus, I regard myself as a secular deontologist.

Here're a couple of useful links ...

http://privacy.med.miami.edu/glossary/xd_consequentiali...
http://privacy.med.miami.edu/glossary/xd_deontological_...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consequentialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deontology

[all.of.me]

28. what a great post.

thanks for the intellectual stimulation lacking in my life today!

[glitch]

32. This reminds me of the opposite of "the ends justify the means"

Aldous Huxley: Ends can never justify the means, because the means employed determine the nature of the ends produced.

Since life is a process the means ARE the ends and vice versa.

[TahitiNut]

35. Exactly. That's how I view consequentialist ethics. Like Huxley.

However, when one extrapolates and lapses into sophistries, we can argue that deontological morals/ethics merely presuppose some Grand End ... and thus becomes the Grand Consequentialism. Like I say, I regard that as a sophistry, embedding a wealth of fuzzed-over assumptions like the assumption that deontological ethics ("moral absolutism") must presume the existence of some God or Higher Power with the associated 'revealed' dogmatism. That's really not so, imho. I personally subscribe to subjective moral absolutism - that I not only possess 'free will' but that very possession obligates me to toe the line of my own making. ("Never separate the lives you live from the words you speak." - Paul Wellstone)

I believe I'm subscribing to what's presented in the works of Immanuel Kant (categorical imperative) and John Rawls (A Theory of Justice).

But, since I'm a mere dabbler and somewhat untutored (and untutorable?), how would I know? As always, YMMV.


"Act so that the maxim [determining motive of the will] may be capable of becoming a universal law for all rational beings" and "Always act so as to treat humanity, whether in your own person or that of another, as an end in itself, never as a means only." -- Immanuel Kant

[glitch]

37. I came at it by dabbling in physics, dynamic systems especially

So it's interesting seeing the philosophical roots. I think it's a universal truth, so it will appear everywhere. Once you realize there is no end separate from the means, that the process is all there is, then cheating on the means for some mythical end isn't quite so easily rationalized.

I very much like your sentence: "...I not only possess 'free will' but that very possession obligates me to toe the line of my own making."

To Thine Own Self Be True.

Edit to add: "Imitation is Suicide" one of my favorite sound bytes.

"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance, that imitation is suicide, that he must take himself for better, or for worse." Ralph Waldo Emerson

[Up2Late]

26. I had to go to TWO electronic Dictionaries to find it

From Merriam-Webster on-line

<http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&v... >

Main Entry: de·on·tol·o·gy
Pronunciation:
Function: noun
: the theory or study of moral obligation
- de·on·to·log·i·cal /xx/ adjective
- de·on·tol·o·gist /xx/ noun

[Up2Late]

27. Sorry, the pronunciation symbols don't translate for some reason

I'm going to delete them.

[Been Fishing]

16. I am please to support the ACLU

with my small contribution.

The ACLU restores my faith in honest Americans.

I'm proud to be a card carrying advocate for decency, liberty, and justice.

[IChing]

3. "It is indeed ironic that the government invoked the Geneva Conventions

for withholding these photographs," ......I love irony!!!!!

This has been a case going on for years
so watch the spin from MSM on this being recent.

The military had no qualms on Saddam's underwear dignity photographs released,
that got even moderate moslems angry.

Support the ACLU I do

nominated.

[bettyellen]

4. NOMINATED.........

[Coexist]

6. Appoint an outside special counsel???

"The American public deserves to know what is being done in our name. Perhaps after these and other photos are forced into the light of day, the government will at long last appoint an outside special counsel to investigate the torture and abuse of detainees."

Why - is there a blue dress involved?

[Al-CIAda]

7. Fucking insane! n/t

[thecai]

12. Recommended and Contacted The ACLU

Thank you for the post and links, Up2Late!

[Up2Late]

24. I wonder if the "Full Court Press" to slander Amnesty International

Amnesty International by the WH and the Pentagon over their "...GTMO is the Russian Gulag of our day" Comment. (no pun intended)

To Distract or as a "Preemptive Strike?"

[Pachamama]

40. I say its their "pre-emptive strike"..then again, when those pix are seen

by the public, I wonder how many people will agree with FUCheney, *, and RummyDummy about how irrelevant and wrong Amnesty International's report really is?

[Whoa_Nelly]

18. Re: the children abused, possibly raped at Abu Ghraib

Will there ever be a release of those pictures/videos/soundbytes? Was Hersh's report accurate? Will the world ever know all that has happened there under the guise of "democracy"?

[tnlefty]

20. My best guess is that as long as the Pentagon has had

possession of these tapes and photos, much has been obliterated.

[HockeyMom]

22. They are not embryos or fetuses

so the don't matter. Sorry, but those people make me so MAD.

[noiretextatique]

25. hey...don't apologize...they started the "culture of life"

meme. plus "no child left behind" "compassionate conservatism" and all of that CRAP. i guess none of that applies to iraqis.

[Up2Late]

29. Yeah and don't forget,

"...I made it very clear to the Congress that the use of federal money, taxpayers' money to promote science which destroys life in order to save life is -- I'm against that..." * at White House, May 20, 2005

Wasn't that they idea behind removing Saddam and going after Osamma?

[drduffy]

30. Hey...

I have gotten off of my 'rear' and contributed to both ACLU and DNC. But please don't say 'get off my duff"...... 'duffy' is my nickname. But, then again, maybe I am an 'ass'. Ha.

But anyway....get out and contribute. Dollars or time/energy.

[Up2Late]

31. Just be glad your name's not JOHN, I've heard a few guy's ...

...named John bitch about that "...gotta go to the John..." slang, they hate it!

[EST]

38. No doubt it would be a far better state of affairs-

rather than get off our duffs -- get our duffs off. Aw, fergit it. Gettin' tired.

[Nothing Without Hope]

33. So amazing that they would use the Geneva Conventions as an excuse

to not release the photos. If even WATCHING them is counter to the Geneva Conventions, what does that say about what is being done to the prisoners in them? Duh!

Thanks, Up2Late! Another very important update.

[keopeli]

36. This would be "bust a gut" funny if it weren't so harmful

"It is indeed ironic that the government invoked the Geneva Conventions as a basis for withholding these photographs," said Amrit Singh, a staff attorney at the ACLU. "Had the government genuinely adhered to its obligations under these Conventions, it could have prevented the widespread abuse of detainees held in its custody in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay."

[oxbow]

39. Does this mean that the gov. has no more appeals left? nt.

[Up2Late]

42. Yeah, now they have to release the Pictures and Videos...

...,but they'll probably redact the sh*t out of the stuff, to protect Liberty Freedom, Democracy, Liberty, liberty, freedom, freedom,Democracy,Democracy,Democracy,liberty,liberty,liberty,

[Rainscents]

41. Dumb up for ACLU! I am a proud card carrying member!

Will always donated to their cause, they fight very hard for our Constitution!

[Up2Late]

43. Kick n/t

[Judi Lynn]

44. Thanks for including additional links. A lot to think about...... n/t

[Lochloosa]

45. Nominated and Kicked....

WORST PRESIDENT EVER!

[Danieljay]

46. Judge: Release Abu Ghraib Videos, Photos

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050603/ap_on_re_us/detaine...

Great news!

NEW YORK - A judge has ordered the government to release four videos from Abu Ghraib prison and dozens of photographs from the same collection as photos that touched off the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal a year ago.

snip

In October 2003, the ACLU filed a lawsuit seeking information on treatment of detainees in U.S. custody and the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture. The ACLU contends that prisoner abuse is systemic.

"These images may be ugly and shocking ... (but) the American public deserves to know what is being done in our name," said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU.

snip

The ACLU said the material would show that the abuse was "more than the actions of a few rogue soldiers."

[tedoll78]

47. Holy shit.

Get ready. This is gonna be big.

[Briar]

49. Nah - this is obviously an "activist" judge

and anyway, the American public really doesn't want to know. It would have to admit its national mythology is a total delusion. Besides the ACLU are just part of the "cottage industry" of leftie human rights do-gooders and totally unAmerican...

(Yes. That was sarcasm, but nonetheless I think accurate. If the Downing Street memo didn't lead to impeachment why should this have any effect?)

(Edited for spelling)

[tedoll78]

50. Yah.

The "holy shit" reaction was my gut. The skeptic in me took a bit longer to come along, but he's getting much, much more rapid these days..

[democracyindanger]

52. Because DSM isn't about sex.

I'm as cynical as the next guy, and my cynicism says that the American public won't be able to get enough of the rape and abuse in those pictures. If there's one thing you can count on, it's the American public's insatiable appetite for sex and violence on tv.

[Toucano]

48. Wow!

I'm stunned.

Someone actually said, "...the American public deserves to know..."?

Is America coming back from her long vacation or something?

[Fleshdancer]

51. If * was telling the truth (lol), then he shouldn't be worried by this

Frankly, I want Amnesty to be wrong. I want the ACLU to be wrong. The idea that my country could be committing systematic acts of human rights abuses sickens me to the core. Unfortunately I'm not feeling very optimistic. The American people deserve to know the truth. WE are the ones funding the alleged abuses. WE should not be lied to and WE are responsible for doing whatever we can to make it stop. The neocon logic which states that we can behave this way because other people do bad things too is absolutely INSANE.

[thecai]

55. It's Worse In American Gulag Jails and Prisons

I, too, wish ACLU and A.I. were wrong, but sadly, they are not. Bush has ignored reports of inmate abuse/neglect/murder in U.S. jails and prisons for YEARS, including while he was Governor of Texas, one of the WORST states, along with Privatized Prisons (slave-factories), that many politicians own stock in.
I'm thankful the TRUTH is coming to light. Better late than never.

[Massachusetts]

53. Neocons get ready!

[Democracy White]

54. are they going to post

the pics and videos on their website or are they going to make copies of them and sell them to the public?

just wondering

Dee

[warrens]

56. Mr. DeLay, please pick up the white courtesy phone

Some activist judge needs his life threatened.

[gratuitous]

57. The Army has 30 days to produce them

Something tells me Judge Alvin Hellerstein's order is going to be appealed, and this will get tied up in the courts for, oh, about three years and six months.

[thecai]

58. We Know It's "More Than... A Few Rogue Soldiers"

America itself is RIFE with inmate abuse/torture. But at least by the court filings, it will become a part of history. (If Bush allows America to LAST that long).

[seemslikeadream]

59. Seymour Hersh

Debating about it, ummm ... Some of the worst things that happened you don't know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib ... The women were passing messages out saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened' and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It's going to come out."

July 15, 2004
http://www.movingthegoalposts.org/archives/000276.html



Co-Founder of AfterDowningStreet.org on C-SPAN 7:45 - 8:30 a.m. EST Saturday June 4

[TroglodyteScholar]

60. Headline: Admin Defends Rape as Legitimate Interrogation Technique

Wouldn't surprise me a bit, anyway.......

[wiggs]

61. Remember Gonzalez's memo

It's not torture unless there's a premeditated intent to cause permanent damage to bodily organs. You joke, but rape would not fall under his definition of torture. Amazing, huh?

[FrankBooth]

62. Maybe this will wake people up ... look at Serbia recently

Just this week a home video was released showing Serb paramilitaries executing Bosnian teenagers at the Srebrenica massacre in 1995. Many Serbs have felt that the massacre at Srebrenica did not really happen, and that the Hague tribunal is a witch hunt, but the release and widespread airplay of these videos on Serbian TV has seriously eroded the credibility of these denials. Hopefully the same impact will be felt here, if these actually get mainstream play.

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/bosnia_and_herzegovina

[corporatemedia]

63. I remember reading in late '03 about insurgent attacks on prisons

and I kept wondering, "Why would they attack prisons? Wouldn't they just kill their own people?"

There were a number of (small) stories in the corporate media about the attacks on prisons and I don't recall any even suggesting a motive for the attacks.

And then Seymore Hersch(sp?)let the truth out. The women were begging their men to kill them.

If they can bury this one, is there any hope of ever having a real free press again?

[Moderator]

64. kick

[sintax]

65. Judge Orders Pentagon to Release 100 New Photos of Abu Ghraib Prison Abuse

Judge orders Pentagon to release 100 new photos of Abu Ghraib prison abuse
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles

05 June 2005

A US judge has ordered the Bush administration to release more than 100 new photographs and videos of abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib, creating a fresh public relations nightmare for government officials as they seek to rebut accusations that the US is sponsoring torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond.

The ruling comes as Tony Blair prepares to fly to Washington for meetings this week with George Bush. Although the Prime Minister's trip is part of a series of visits to fellow G8 leaders before next month's summit at Gleneagles in Scotland, Downing Street has said that the two men will also discuss Iraq, where violence has recently surged.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?...

[Dogmudgeon]

66. And America gets to fall in love with Lynndie all over again

And just in time for the public burning of Michael Jackson, too.

--p!

[napi21]

67. Is there a specific time fram to do this?

I understand the Judge ordered them to release the pics, but how long can they stall?

[truthisfreedom]

68. i think it must happen in June... no later than the 30th, but it might be

sooner.

[tmooses]

69. Judge Orders Pentagon to Release 100 more Photo's of Abu Ghraib

Abuse.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?...


"Government lawyers argued that releasing the photographs would reveal the prisoners' identities, a violation of their rights under the Geneva Conventions. But the ACLU said that objection could be easily overcome by blocking out the prisoners' faces. The judge agreed, and gave the White House until the end of the month to hand over the material.

More pointedly, the ACLU also said the government's reasoning was absurd because the violation of the Geneva Conventions began with the abuse, not with attempts to uncover it."


How twisted is it to have government lawyers using the Geneva Conventions as a rationale for blocking these photo's. Didn't Alberto
Gonzales argue that these rules are "obsolete"?

[Erika]

70. Hussein is shown in his undershorts?

Under Bush's "government"

[wtmusic]

71. They are slimeballs

An obvious technicality and wanking of the system.

They have no integrity whatsoever.

[Carolab]

72. If you havent' joined the ACLU, please consider it.

They are doing amazing things for us.

[wtmusic]

73. Oh yes

I'm now officially Guardian of Libery (monthly donor)...

they are doing *terrific* things.

[Carolab]

85. Me TOO! n/t

[Up2Late]

80. Gonzales said the Geneva Conventions rules were "Quaint"

I sure wish he would get a "Quaint" Prison Cell

[orleans]

74. well, this is certainly good news

let's hope they don't strike it down on appeal.

can they appeal?

(Psst: if you haven't signed the letter
Do it now.
Do it for your country.
Do it for John
Here’s the link)

[Up2Late]

75. O.K. This story is hitting the U.K. Press and most likely the World Press

this question is, will this Huge story get any press in this U.S.? Any recent sightings?

[DLnyc]

86. WP report

Washingtoon Post has it!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

[DLnyc]

87. Also being reported in Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2...

snip

Because the photos and other documents related to Abu Ghraib have not been released all at once, ''it's just a constant dripping, and it makes it hard for the US to have a clean break," Gvosdev said. ''We just haven't been able to put Abu Ghraib behind us."

snip

Funny how crimes against humanity kind of follow you around after you commit them!

[Up2Late]

88. Thanks for posting these, The Washington Post article was...

...from the same case, but from the Court Filing day, one I never found. I've added it to my records. Thanks again.

[RAF]

76. Judge orders release of 100 new photos of Abu Ghraib

By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles

05 June 2005

A US judge has ordered the Bush administration to release more than 100 new photographs and videos of abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib, creating a fresh public relations nightmare for government officials as they seek to rebut accusations that the US is sponsoring torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond.

The ruling comes as Tony Blair prepares to fly to Washington for meetings this week with George Bush. Although the Prime Minister's trip is part of a series of visits to fellow G8 leaders before next month's summit at Gleneagles in Scotland, Downing Street has said that the two men will also discuss Iraq, where violence has recently surged.

A suicide car bomber attacked a police patrol in Baghdad yesterday, seriously wounding two policemen. During the day, hundreds of Iraqi and US troops braved the heat to search fields and farms in an area known as the Triangle of Death, for hideouts used by predominantly Sunni Arab militants to mount suicide attacks against nearby Baghdad.

They rounded up at least 108 Iraqis suspected of involvement in the insurgency.

Iraqi forces were claiming one major success - the arrest in a raid in Mosul of a senior militant leader, Mullah Mahdi. He is said to be linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qa'ida follower accused by Washington of masterminding much of the violence against occupation troops. An Iraqi official said the arrest was "very significant".

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?...

[truth2power]

77. Can they appeal this? If so,

I guess the judge's decision is meaningless.

[Up2Late]

78. Old news here (at DU), but I'm glad to see it hit the U.K. papers...

...other than The Guardian for once.

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph... >

[zanne]

79. "redacted" versions of the photographs to be released?

We've seen how they "redact" documents. I can imagine how they'll "redact" the pictures!

[schrodingers_cat]

81. Judge orders Pentagon to release 100 new photos of Abu Ghraib prison abuse

By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
05 June 2005


A US judge has ordered the Bush administration to release more than 100 new photographs and videos of abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib, creating a fresh public relations nightmare for government officials as they seek to rebut accusations that the US is sponsoring torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond.

<snip>

Government lawyers argued that releasing the photographs would reveal the prisoners' identities, a violation of their rights under the Geneva Conventions. But the ACLU said that objection could be easily overcome by blocking out the prisoners' faces. The judge agreed, and gave the White House until the end of the month to hand over the material.

<snip>

President Bush has come under increasing scrutiny over his repeated claims to be interested in spreading freedom around the world, most recently in the damning Amnesty International report on conditions at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.

<snip>


http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?...

[xray s]

82. yeah right

like Rehnquist is gonna let that happen

[acmejack]

83. I will wait to see if they comply...

NT

[schrodingers_cat]

84. Those durned activist judges!!!