Abu Ghraib Photo Release Appealed by Govt.

[kpete]

Abu Ghraib Photo Release Appealed by Govt.
by What were you thinking
Wed Nov 16, 2005 at 10:37:55 AM PDT
I spoke with the ACLU this morning and found out that the Federal Government will appeal Judge Hellerstein's ruling that selected Abu Ghraib photos should be released.

What were you thinking's diary :: ::
The Department of Defense lawyers notified the court yesterday of their intent to appeal to UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT. The ACLU indicated that it would be unusual for a FOIA lawsuit to go beyond the Appeals court so that the final decision should made by a panel of judges to be selected.


They didn't rule out the possibilty that the government would try to stall and file a further appeal with the US Supreme Court should they lose at the Circuit Court Level.


All in all it looks like we will have to wait for another decision.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/11/16/123756/71

[NNN0LHI]

1. We don't torture and the WMDs are right over there in Tikrit n/t

[Patchuli]

2. If they feel justified in torturing human beings

for their sicko ends, why the secrecy? Why hide the pictures? Don't they believe that they can continue to get dumb Americans to go along with their evil ways?

Transparancy in government NOW!

[acmavm]

3. As I've been saying, these photos will never been seen as long as

these buffoons are running things.

[Southsideirish]

4. Why doesn't some brave "whistleblower" throw some over the transom

to Sy Hersh?

[sui generis]

5. here's the deal

When it was evident that there were substantive rumors of real torture taking place, the first wave of pictures appeared. They weren't intended to shock us, they were intended to show us that it was just soldiers having a bit of fun, not really "torturing" anyone. That didn't work out so well for them.

Now, it doesn't matter HOW bad the rumors are - we know the pictures are indeed worse. From my understanding of it, now it's not torture and maiming they're worried about; everybody expects violence against adults by adults. But these pictures actually show a young man being raped with American soldiers standing around watching - something that will almost certainly incite anyone who hasn't yet heard or believed it.

Never come between a father and his son, or especially between a paternal society and a son of that nation. There will be consequences, but we must also face them.

How dare we put a stupid woman in jail for 30 years for throwing sex parties for teenagers, yet let the soldiers who condoned and used this ultimate violation of military responsibility toward a child as entertainment run free.

We need to face the music now or we will be facing the repercussions of it for decades, if not centuries to come. I think every one of those committe member's fourteen year old kids should get to spend a night in an Iraqi-run prison if they think they are doing the right thing for the world by witholding those photos.

[Poll_Blind]

6. I've spent so much time searching for these online...

I'm starting to think the "leaked" pics were from the Administration, itself.

I have been astounded that further pictures did not leak. I don't know if I can claim to be the person who's spent the most time looking for them but I've spent (I'd guess) almost a hundred hours searching for these things online. There were two memes I recall after they were leaked- 1) That this was a natural response from our soldiers under stress (bullshit) and 2) That the pictures didn't need to be released because they were "available all over the internet". The latter still persists.

As a person who researches (usually political) things on a regular basis and who knows nearly every searching trick and method, I've turned up bupkis. Success would be a not-already-seen picture containing one of the already-known principals in the case. Nada.

Which makes me think that if these pictures were loosely-held enough to have been leaked in the first place, there would have been subsequent leaks, especially after it became apparent that the Government was not going to play fair and use every dirty trick to stall, etc. The alternative, which I'm starting to believe, that the pictures were never "leaked", per se, but were cherry-picked and released (as you seemed to indicate) as a "trial-balloon".

PB

[sui generis]

8. fyi the particular pictures that were shown to the senate

in the second round were almost certainly caught before being circulated outside the few people who were initially exchanging them.

btw I'm not speculating on these points - I have friends in the most extraordinary places, and that is the very most I can say.

You won't find them on the internet, at the moment that is impossible. However, they will eventually be made public, and for the same reasons they were made public the first time - as a red herring and to prove that they're not as bad as the worst of our imagination.

And they will be incomplete, of course. I have another theory too - they will be destroyed by a loyal and patriotic caretaker who will sacrifice himself for the honor of the nation and get 2 years probation, a slap on the wrist and an anonymous retirement bank account in the Liechtenstein area.

- that last part is me speculating, but I would love to be proven wrong.

I personally think that publishing the photos would be tremendously disrespectful to the people who had to experience those things, and it's more than a little creepy that there are people who want to see those photos so badly. We mostly deem autopsy photos private for exactly those same reasons; however in this case shit is going to hit the fan whether we do and whether we don't, but it will hurt us a lot more in the long run if we don't.

[TahitiNut]

7. When a regime fears 'public opinion' to the degree this regime ...

... demonstrably does with all its secrecy and repression, it's pretty clear they're criminals performing atrocities deliberately. When the lies and frauds stop working, they can only clam up. They have no other defense. The abuse of power and authority is horrendous. Until they're in prison, there is no justice in America.

"... with freedom and justice for all." The (so-called) Pledge of Allegiance is a cruel joke and a sham. I shall never again recite it until these criminals are in prison.

[helderheid]

9. oh good grief --- it must be REALLY bad if they keep stalling.