ACLU Blames Gov't for Abu Ghraib Delay

[Jon8503]

The Associated Press

New York - The American Civil Liberties Union accused the government Friday of putting another legal roadblock in the way of its bid to allow the public to see photographs and videos stemming from the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.

The ACLU said sealed documents the government filed Friday in US District Court in Manhattan will be used to argue that dozens of photographs cannot be released because they would result in a safety threat to individuals.

"We obviously express skepticism about the latest move on the government's part to withhold information the public is clearly entitled to," said Amrit Singh, a staff attorney with the ACLU.

The government raised its new challenge to releasing pictures and videos from Abu Ghraib prison on the same day it was supposed to show the exhibits to a judge presiding over the case, the ACLU said.

Sean H. Lane, the government lawyer handling the case, referred questions to Herbert Haddad, a spokesman for US Attorney David Kelley.

Haddad said the government did file papers in the case under seal, and he said he could not discuss their contents for that reason.

Singh said the delay by the government would be challenged in court by the ACLU, which filed a lawsuit in October 2003 seeking information on the treatment of detainees in US custody and the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture. The ACLU contends that prisoner abuse is systemic.

Lane has argued that releasing pictures, even in redacted form, would violate Geneva Convention rules on prisoner treatment by subjecting detainees to additional humiliation or embarrassment.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072305B.shtml

-------

[Quakerfriend]

1. Do you think the judge will led these delay tactics stand?

[Jon8503]

2. Hard to Say on this just now but the ACLU will fight to get this

resolved. Here is some more info on this you can read.

To date, more than 60,000 pages of government documents have been released in response to the ACLU's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The ACLU has been posting these documents online at


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 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.

[rainy]

3. Are there copies? Why does the pentagon get to control who

sees them. If the ACLU has copies couldn't they erase the faces and release them? It is news.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. I hope this judges rules BushCo in contempt of court

if any of us ever pulled this crap we would have been in jail months ago.

No one is above the law. Especially government officials who have committed treason in multiple ways.

[Old and In the Way]

5. So much for the freedom of press.

I guess, when it comes to this administration's personal security, our freedom's take a back seat. We are becoming more like the old Soviet state everyday.

Since the terrorids hate us for our freedoms, Bushco seems to be doing their best to address it. I wonder if the terrorists like us more now?

[AnnInLa]

6. kick

Next, they will argue that the images/pics are porn...so naturally can't be released.

[Toots]

7. An open Admission that their actions are making us less safe

They say the release of the pictures will make Americans less safe. It ain't the pictures that will make us less safe but the actions by Americans the pictures show that make us less safe. They are admitting that if those pictures are released we will be less safe ie. The Actions of the US Government are making Americans less safe.