BREAKING NEWS: Obama will seek to block Gitmo interrogation photos, official tells NBC News

Source: MSNBC

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...or some such bullshit like that.

...because IMO if this comes out, Obama will have NO place to go except to find Bush, Cheney and the rest of the cabal and see that the motherfuckers are charged.

"because IMO if this comes out, Obama will have NO place to go except to find Bush, Cheney and the rest of the cabal and see that the motherfuckers are charged."

It's a very cynical political decision.

What purpose does it serve for you to see them?

For the Truth? Truth isnt reality lots of people here on DU make up their OWN truths
to satisfy their own SICK facination with distorted reality
just cruse over to the 911 thread and view the tin foil hat crowd that dont know a dam thing about
what happens during building fires.

There are LOTS of things your NOT ENTITLED to see or read in the governement every day. So what?!! Who cares
move on with life.

who to vote for. This is supposed to be a representative democracy. At this point, our representatives mostly represent big business and the military, not those of us who vote for them.

Yes, we do have the right to see everything. These photos have nothing to do with foreign policy secrets or even military secrets since the events they depict took place years ago, supposedly. We are not negotiating with foreign powers about these photos. Our troops are supposedly not torturing anyone, nor is the CIA or any other American permitted to torture anyone.

We need to release the photos and bring criminal charges against the torturers, and we need to do it now. The best way to safeguard our troops is to prosecute all torturers, whether in our government or in foreign countries. Torture cannot be tolerated. It must be prosecuted everywhere in the world where it occurs. We need to make that clear. How can we expect Pakistan or Afghanistan or the Sudan to prosecute torturers if we refuse to do it? Letting torturers know that they will be prosecuted if they torture is the only way that we can rid the world of torture.

Torture is the tool of dictators. Only dictators and thugs torture. So much for Bush and Cheney -- torturers, that's what they are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbfTFTf9n-0

are released we will "embolden the terrorists"

I can hear him saying that, I wish cheney would just go away.

done to date.

Just a guess. I have no earthly idea if that's not it.

old same old.

Governments also always have excuses ready about why they always lie and always attempt to block information.


That's the whole reason for the constitution, the bill of rights and rule of law. Because the founders knew that whether some future President was named Obama or bush or had a D or an R behind their name that governments always lie and always try to block information, eventually or from the get go.

I hope Obama fails to block these photos and I hope he fails big.

unwillingness, for whatever (national security, the "disgust" factor, you name it) reasons, to share details of a truth that we all already know.

I'm guessing the request to attempt a block came from DOD, though I don't know that for a fact.

We'll have to see what happens, I guess.

who was the person who put forth the argument that the President signed off on, and that person would be getting all the finger pointing.

Is still lying!!!!

Not providing picture attachments to a completed investigation isn't lying.

How you define lie,if he is not lying At this time then he was lying during the campaign when he said he would be open and transparent,of course we all know that no one is expected to keep "campaign" promises don't we? This is not the first reversal and I doubt it will be the last. What it really comes down to is "politics as usual" different names same old shit.

They published some of the photos in the Sydney Morning Hearald. You can see them here:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/photos-us-doesnt-want-...

Click on the "Related links...Photos: More snaps from Abu Ghraib" under the photo. I could only stomach about the first five. I can understand why President Obama didn't want them released. They are enough to infuriate everyone except the rethuglican haters, who probably get off on this kind of thing. I can only imagine how some of the Muslim extremists feel...

Than this would seem to be more of a domestic ban then. Unless somehow they think their being published in Australia won't spread to other parts of the world? That just seems silly.

Perhaps he means to.

No prosecution of the CIA terrorists now this.

the guys who shoved plastic flashlights up little boys rectums(until they screamed) are dancing for joy

It's pretty sickening to watch this unfold like this.

"No prosecution of the CIA terrorists now this.

the guys who shoved plastic flashlights up little boys rectums(until they screamed) are dancing for joy"

Seymour Hersh talked about this on Charlie Rose a few years back
he had heard the tapes and seemed completely shaken and disgusted
by it all.

I'm sure there are Americans that believe torturing Children
in a vain and futile attempt to get the mythical
"actionable intelligence" is a necessary evil.

There must be because that's what Americans did to these kids.

It makes my blood boil....

Let's hope they continue to stand up for truth and justice ---

Cause, if this stuff doesn't swiftly bring justice, I don't know what could!!!

That very well could be. He's pretty slick, thankfully.

Obama has lost a great deal of my confidence as a result of this - if it is indeed his decision.

I'm basing my opinions on what I've seen from him, not from what I want. I don't have all the details, he does. I'm not privy to information that would allow me to understand what the options for him are, nor do you. I prefer to give him a little time, let the story unfold, and have a little faith that he can turn this one around too.

The Political Capital that was allocated to him by the Corporations and the Invisible Hand that really runs the Government and the Economy.

This is just more of the same in the vein of Fisa, Withdrawl, Bank Bailouts, DLC allegiance, etc.

And the President does not want them to be lumped together. Prisoner abuse could be lumped together with torture, however in this case he may want to prove that torture was systematic and pervasive from bush to the cia bastards that did the beatings. Prisoner abuse may seem just as it's depicted; seemingly random acts by republicans who have multiple issues.

Just saying!

This fact seems to be lost on many people, and this fact is documented quite cleary in the film, "Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers".

The films interviews many people that were involved and it paints a pretty clear picture that Contractors had a large role in the abuse of prisoners. So one may think that Civilian contractors would be innappropriate in the extraction of sensitive intelligence, but that is exactly what was done. The Contractors also were highly profit motivated, and were not subject to the UCMJ. They basically had free reign to arbitrarily choose victims for their abuse and torture.

There is one interview in the film of an Iraqi that was "Processed" in Abu Ghraib. He relates that he was stripped naked and then several Soldiers urinated on him simultaneously. He was very calm and composed as he related his thoughts of "What's the reason for doing this?"

After watching the film, one gets the impression that the intent was to hide behind the skirts of Corporate law, as written in the 1700's that states that Corporations are extensions of the monarchy and cannot commit any crimes. This plank of Corporatism basically stands intact today, because it shields corporations from their responsibilities to respect basic rights of humanity.

One can see this behavior in predatory business practices in the civilian sector as well, such as the incredibly harmful Tobacco industry, where they can continue to kill people with cigarettes, and then blame the the physical addiction to nictonine as the result of an Americans "Freedom to Choose". It's all Bullshit.

The Corporation are so big that even if we wnated reform, the big corporations can blackmail the country in many ways, from triggering recessions, shortages, inflation, deflation, unemployment, healthcare, transport, etc. They can shut this Government down in a heartbeat if they so desired. I think this is what we are seeing these days. The Corporations are basically calling the shots, and Government is between a rock and a hard place trying to cope the best it can without collapsing.

The buck does not stop with them, it follows up the chain as in anything.

Who is Obama protecting, and why?

any chance of our nation returning to any dignity and integrity in the eyes of the world.

And how does hiding the truth return our integrity and dignity???

If Obama hides the truth then he will show that this country has little integrity and less dignity.

I just think that this is SO BAD - so much worse than we may want to know really, that we should use the pics in court to get these guys locked up but that if we put all those ugly visuals out there we are screwed as a nation. Maybe some. Maybe enough to get the tide of public sentiment to the point of realizing that what they did was obviously unnecessary but this could stain our country's reputation forever and whatever Obama does to try to heal the wounds between us and the rest of the world will be for nothing. I want the truth out and I want these guys to pay, I really do. But I think that there are plenty of individuals and countries out there who are leaning towards never forgiving us (whether consciously or not) and actively hating us that this could actually put us in a very unsafe situation.

Visuals have a hard core impact. I totally disagree with what they did but I think it would be easy for some to think of us as "the good Germans" no matter how bitterly we disagreed with what they were doing. We will always be thought of as in the same league as Nazi Germany and worse.

The American people must see what was done in their name if they are ever to wake up for this alternate reality that is painted by the Mass Media, Government mouthpieces and paid corporate schills.

There are a great many of us who were kept in the dark, and we did not hide behind the skirts of a few bad apples such as Cheney and Rumsfeld. In fact, we were kept out of the loop entirely until people witnessing these atrocities could stand it no more.

Hiding ones head in the sand will not change the fact that these atrocities did occur. It's kind of like Income Tax. If you demand to see the law that requires an individual wage earner to fill out a 1040 Form, the IRS will refuse to produce one that unequivocally mandates this act. Filling out a 1040 for personal wages is Voluntary, not mandatory, but the IRS will coerce people with harrassment, confiscation of property, and abuse of the legal system to apply pressure.

Remember that the Torture memos were secret until just recently, and were never formally discussed with Congress or the American people. Neither was Fisa. Now that these memos prove that Tortue was initiated by the executive branch, it has to be revealed wherever it takes us, not matter how distateful that may be.

It's kind of like buying a beautiful house, and then one day you are planting roses and you dig up a bone that has a ring on it... Do you just ignore it or deal with the devastating reality that something awful has just been discovered.