Despite earlier indications that there would be a release of detainee photos, President Obama has ordered that the photos been withheld in defiance of a judicial ruling. I discussed the development on this segment of the Rachel Maddow Show.
The Defense Department was set to release hundreds of photographs showing alleged abuse of prisoners in detention facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, the White House has announced that the President has yielded to demands to withhold the pictures, citing the safety of U.S. troops are the reason — the very same reason given by the Bush Administration.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated “the president reflected on this case and believes that they have the potential to pose harm to the troops. … Nothing is added by the release of the photos.” Well, there is that transparency in government thing. There is also showing the world that we are going to come to grips and take responsibility for our actions. It is hard to accept responsibility for acts that you will not disclose to the public. The value is to show that the United States will not hide its abuses or hide from its responsibility.
The Administration also ignores that enemies already have sufficient photos for recruiting. What they also have is the argument that we are a nation of hypocrites who engage in torture when it suits us — only to resist investigation of those war crimes. Concealing our abuse of detainees only reaffirms this message.
Obama’s comments come directly from the Second Circuit opinion rejecting the very arguments that he made in the press conference. The court rejected the attempt to use FOIA as “an all-purpose damper on global controversy.” Obama himself pledged in January not to allow agencies to withhold material under FOIA that would embarrass the government. To add insult to injury, he also said that the release might interfere with “future investigations” — like the investigation his administration has blocked into torture.
Here is the Second Circuit opinion, acluvdod_photodecision
For the full story, click here.
I am beginning to fear that Obama’s thinking is that people who favor prosecution of torturers, favor the release of the facts about Bush’s torture regime, oppose “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and other liberal causes, have nowhere else to go. We can’t threaten to vote Republican in 2010 or 2012. Therefore, Obama is trying to win over the conservatives and ensure his re-election in 2012. He is a politician, after all, and all politicians care about is being re-elected.
Patty C writes: “Under Obama, detainees are not currently being ‘abused’ at Gitmo.”
Uh, patty, you better google Gitmo inmates conditions Obama.
Many of the Gitmo prisoners are saying their treatment has worsened under Obama. “Course that probably means their TV goes off at 9:00 PM instead of 10:00…..
LOL!
The most powerful man in the world, the United States President, just announced he SCREWED UP A MONTH AGO when he agreed to release them and that releasing them very well could get American soldiers killed.
A couple more mistakes like this big one thrown on top of the mountain of mistakes he has made so far and pretty much everybody, except for you 6, will have to agree Obama is a lunatic with no clue!
The USA is not supposed to operate like the USSR, no matter what Reggie appears to think.
Shocker….captain jackass makes another decision that he has to reverse as soon as he realizes the media backlash it’s going to create. Is this retard really our president?
What the hell does ACORN have to do with any of this? You just threw that in there because it’s the wingnut bogeman du jour, right?
To formerFederalPieceOf
Have you served in the military? I have (alas in Soviet that is). Do you even understand the military being in another not so friendly country surrounded by locals and these photos are out????Showing them on their local TV, radio, newspaper?????? YOU DO NOT GET IT M0r0n!!!
For once prez made the right decision and some (not all) from the left are getting on him. You have then to discuss it on a Mad Cow Desease show, which is ultra-left that I can’t watch for more than 30 seconds. Myself, being from ex Soviet Union, ex-communist/socialist who knows what it is…If a spy had disclosed the video/photo etc you’d be all over him/her. ACLU does not care about civil liberties, just like ACORN it cares about itself…
binx101,
A better restatement of my point #2 from Greenwald:
(6) If these photographs don’t shed any new light on what our Government did — if all they do is replicate what we already know from the Abu Ghraib photographs — then how can it possibly be the case that they will do any damage? To argue that they will harm how we are perceived is, necessarily, to acknowledge that they reveal new information that is not already widely known.
From here: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/13/photos/index.html
binx101,
1) As pointed out in my post above, this does not reduce the safety of the troops in any way. This is simply CYA for who knows what political reason.
2) Why the ‘morbid curiosity’? Because these photos may contain things we have NOT seen before, especially if someone in power does not want us to see them. You’re right, if we have seen all that there is to see here, our demands to release the photos are simply for completeness’ sake. However, I have a hunch that that is not the case. The decision not to release these photos only strengthens my suspicion.
3) What makes you so sure that these photos will be released a year from now? Given the recent secrecy trajectory Obama has been on, I would not be surprised if these photos never come out. Then there would certainly be a harm and a foul. Not to say that withholding these photos now is acceptable, either.
Before I come under fire for my last comment, let’s review.
1) Broke promise to post bills online for 5 days before passing.
2) Broke timeline to pull troups out of Iraq.
3) Claimed to oppose all past warmongering by Bush, yet has done everything Bush would do in that regard so far.
Besides that, he has appointed nothing but CFR members to his cabinet. The Council on Foreign Relations openly admits their desire for world government. He not only is taking trillions of our tax dollars and giving it to wall street, but he is permitting the Federal Reserve (private corporation – YES on HR1207!) to print even MORE money than that in new currency, effectively devaluing all the existing hard earned money that they haven’t yet given away.
Who really gives a rip about whether these pictures get released anyway? The media just loves to clutter up their headlines with things that don’t matter. Regardless of all that, his actions are that of someone who condones breaking the Geneva Convention instead of someone who values human rights and accountability.
Before I come under fire for my last comment, let’s review.
1) Broke promise to post bills online for 5 days before passing.
2) Broke timeline to pull troups out of Iraq.
3) Claimed to oppose all past warmongering by Bush, yet has done everything Bush would do in that regard so far.
Besides that, he has appointed nothing but CFR members to his cabinet. The Council on Foreign Relations openly admits their desire for world government. He not only is taking trillions of our tax dollars and giving it to wall street, but he is permitting the Federal Reserve (private corporation – YES on HR1207!) to print even MORE money than that in new currency, effectively devaluing all the existing hard earned money that they haven’t yet given away.
Who really gives a rip about whether these pictures get released anyway? The media just loves to clutter up their headlines with things that don’t matter. Regardless of all that, his actions are that of someone who condones breaking the Geneva Convention instead of someone who values human rights and accountability.
‘safety of U.S. troops’
What the hell does that mean? It’s so vague a justification to be utterly meaningless. How does releasing photos of things that happened years ago violate the safety of US troops? It’s not as though Obama was being pressed to release the location of some secret army troop movements or give artillery to Al-Quaida. THOSE things would violate the safety of US troops. Coming to grips with our past does not.
You mean he didn’t keep his word again? Big surprise, he never does. Why anybody thinks he isn’t a flat out lying puppet is beyond me.
Simple reason and realization that I do not have all the information necessary to have a firm opinion on this matter is the only thing that is clear to a half-wit like me.
There are good reasons we have laws – there are good reasons that we have leadership. I fear though that we have become so cynical because of the overwhelming number of feckless elected and appointed leaders we suffered in the last Administration – we excuse ourselves for overreacting, talking with our mouths full or brains half empty and we’re accustomed to being ready to rumble.
Personally, I’m comfortable with Obama’s decision and direction based not on risking making Americans less safe – but risking making American Troops less safe, considering the planned and current operational change in Afghanistan and Iraq. President Obama is also the Commander-in-Chief and this is the kind of thoughtful intellect that mitigates risk.
As for the argument that everyone already knows what happened – I have two comments. 1. So then why all the morbid curiosity. 2. Then there is no harm / no foul if the release to the general public of these atrocities takes place a year from now – it really won’t matter.
I do though consider that this is a delta of historical relevance. It is understandable that a number of people, criminals if you will, serving in our government blatantly violated the law and in a clandestine manner used the legal expertise of Federal employees to undermine Federal law. It is serious. Since there is no statute of limitations on treason – I most humbly admire that our troops safety may have to trump (pardon the expression) expedient justice. At least, based on what I know and what I think I know – that’s how I stand now.
No one is suggesting atrocities did not occur under Bush.
They are simply questioning the wisdom of flaunting the factual evidence to the world at the present time.
BTW, where is the link for this?
?????????Abuse of detainees continues in Gitmo:?????????
(also see the AP and Al Jazeera)
Yemen Guantanamo detainee attempts to kill himself
By Nasser Arrabyee, Correspondent
Published: May 11, 2009, 16:04
————
Under Obama, detainees are not currently being ‘abused’ at Gitmo.
Prisoners receive better treatment and more freedoms, including opportunities to socialize, when they cooperate.
Refusing food, isolating oneself, or lashing out violently does not qualify under cooperation.
That is not to say none ever suffered severe abuses under Bush
NOR that none currently have longstanding mental health problems.
What it does say is that they are not yet fit for release…
This may be one more reason why the pictures are being disappeared:
(from Andy Worthington)
“Newsweek added further details, reporting that Hafed al-Ghwell, a Libyan-American and a prominent critic of the Gaddafi regime, also doubted that al-Libi had committed suicide. “This idea of committing suicide in your prison cell is an old story in Libya,” al-Ghwell said, adding that, throughout Gaddafi’s rule, there had been several instances in which political prisoners were reported to have committed suicide, but that “then the families get the bodies back and discover the prisoners had been shot in the back or tortured to death.”
As yet, we have had no reports about the condition of al-Libi’s body, but al-Ghwell indicated that he felt that al-Libi’s death may have followed the pattern established above, but with a twist based on the recent disclosure of documents relating to the Bush administration’s policies of “extraordinary rendition” and torture, and of Libya’s involvement. “My gut feeling is that something fishy happened here and somebody in Libya panicked,” he said, adding, as Newsweek described it, that, “With the prospect that the Obama administration might release more Bush-era documents about the treatment of CIA detainees, officials in the Gaddafi regime had reasons to be concerned that their ‘complicity’ in the US war on terror would be exposed.”
in response to another different posted article…
http://jonathanturley.org/2009/05/13/pelosi-aide-speaker-was-told-about-torture-being-used-on-subjects/#comment-53013
Patty C 1, May 13, 2009 at 4:15 pm
This is no doubt a wiser decision upon consideration of opinions expressed in anticipation of their release by ‘both sides’
AND in the fields.
Unlike his predecessor this man not only listens, he thinks!
—
Obama agreed to release ALL such photos in response to a FOIA request for just SOME, as I understand it.
I am persuaded that was probably not the best idea to begin with, and I’m glad that people on both sides of the aisle also agree and more importantly, that those in the field spoke up and were heard.
Bravo!
This is exactly what will bring harm to our troops. Pictures and graphic accounts of people’s torture at our hands is mostly a secret to the citizens of the US. It is not a secret in the Arab world. People who we tortured and who manged to survive are writing books about their experiences. If Obama thinks denial will help our troops he is woefully misinformed on this matter.
The only way to regain our standing in the world, to keep our troops safe, to keep our civilian population from less chance of a terrorist attack is to be strong, honorable and courageous. That means, we follow the rule of law, no matter what, no matter who. If we act with honor towards others and ourselves we show what is the best in this nation. If we grovel in aquiescence to the powerful by hiding their crimes, appeasing them by allowing them to carry on with no consequences–by continuing the evil practices of bushcheney–we are lost. Kucinich said today, “wake up America” and that is what we need to do.
When tyranny comes it will march under the banner of “public safety” as it always has done.