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Obama Administration Fights To Withhold Over 2,000 Photos Of Alleged U.S. Torture and Abuse

abu-ghraibPresident Obama once pledged that his government would be the most transparent in history — a claim that is often mocked by civil libertarians and other critics who accuse him of almost Nixonian secrecy policies and inclinations. That troubling record is playing out again before U.S District Court Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Administration continues to fight to withhold over 2,000 images of torture and abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan simply because it would make the United States look bad. Ironically, there is a transparent element to this case. Few Administration have been so transparently obvious in their use of classification rule to simply bar the disclosure of information that would be embarrassing to officials or the government. Usually, the Justice Department attempts to spin a tale of some other national security rationale for non-disclosure. Here, however, there is nothing even plausible to come up with. The Obama Administration simply wants to deep six the photos because people would be really angry if they saw what the government did, including photos that are believed to be far worse than those Abu Ghraib (like the one above).


Hellerstein gave the Justice Department until December 12th to come a rational explanation why each individual photograph has been withheld from the public. In 2009, Obama insisted that disclosing the photos would “further inflame anti-American opinion.” However, that rationale could be used for wholesale cover ups and information controls by the government. The government never wants bad information to come out and would prefer to say that it is protecting the public from any backlash. This includes criticism of Obama’s pledge, soon after being elected, not to allow the prosecution of officials responsible for the torture program. Whatever the backlash, it is far more dangerous to allow the government to pick and choose what “bad news” or bad images will reach the public. The photographs are also important for historians and academics in fully documenting this period of history.

Such censorship is more likely to be an effort to manage domestic public opinion than it is extreme foreign elements. If Obama can do this on detainees, the next president can use the same power in countless other areas. Obama supporters have been willfully blind to the precedent that they are creating in such positions.

The Obama Administration has set the record for censoring information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The penchant for secrecy in this Administration is creating a new level of government control over information that will likely be replicated by the next Administration. No administration wants to release negative information unless it has to do so. That latter prospect is now in the hands of Judge Hellerstein.

Source: IBT

60 thoughts on “Obama Administration Fights To Withhold Over 2,000 Photos Of Alleged U.S. Torture and Abuse”

  1. Pingback: Obama Administration Fights To Withhold Over 2,000 Photos Of Alleged U.S. Torture and Abuse | The Human Writes Blog

  2. The abuse was despicable. But nothing should be done to shame the prisoners more. This was a gross violation of the laws of war. And yes, there are laws of war, even if mostly honored in the breach.

    Let’s ask ourselves whether they wanted these pictures to come out. I think Washington psyops teams planned them not just for use at Abu Ghraib but for eventual leak. They are sickopaths adn they intended to humiliate and demoralize the opposition. Of course it rarely ever works out the way the psyop freaks think it will.

  3. “President Obama once pledged that his government would be the most transparent in history…” And people still don’t get it.

    When confronted with Obama’s policies, his supporters hate him….if they believe the policies came from someone else. Ignorance apparently knows no bounds.

    Obama Supporters Actually Hate Obama’s Policies

  5. Joseph Jones – your first mistake is thinking psychology or psychiatry are actually science.

  6. Reading some of these responses makes me think of this joke:

    Question: What do you call a lawyer in twenty feet of water with cement shoes?

    Answer: A good start.

    If these pictures are to be released, pictures of ISIS fighters beheading and executing people — including children — should be published along side.

    You come across as a bunch of self-righteous jerks. Sorry……I was there on 9/11.

  7. Difficult topic (witness that the loons are out in full force, while the thinkers are staying quiet on this one).

    Bottom line – let the chips fall where they may.

    Since we are back to Nixonian tactics, we should remember the great lesson from the 70’s: “It’s not the crime, it’s the cover up”.

    We should go even further back, to Brandeis: “Sunlight is the best disinfectant”.

  10. Americans are so very pathetically stupid and ignorant. Prior to 9-11, the Twin Towers were scheduled to received earthquake and environmental refurbish costing hundreds of millions of dollars. Shortly before 9-11, the Judaic owners multiplied their insurance coverage several times over. The 9-11 “attack” (i.e. US-orchestrated false flag even) was a net gain of hundreds of millions for the Twin Tower owners.

    Strangely, and unknown to the public, one of the members of the insurance company that paid the claim is close relative to one of the members of the 9-11 Commission, as if that was not a clear case of conflict of interest.

  11. My apology for piling on: the Bush admin bribed members of the scientific community (Psychiatrists/Therapists) to agree that torture was not torture, a permanent black stain on this alleged branch of “science.” Since that time, the Board associated w/this branch of science has back-tracked and decried what their members did, but AFAIK none of the so-called scientists lost their license to earn a living continuing their work in the field. I’m sure persons who allowed Bush and his crew to justify felonious torture are praised in certain quarters, the same types who praised Dr. Mengele in Nazi Germany.

  12. Zionist Jew District Court Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein is part of the 9/11 cover up
    Will Larry Silverstein ever be brought to justice for 9/11 insurance fraud? by Dr Kevin Barrett
    How has Larry Silverstein managed to get away with murder, in the most obvious case of insurance fraud ever? Thanks to his partner in crime, Judge Alvin Hellerstein.
    https://www.darkmoon.me/2013/will-larry-silverstein-ever-be-brought-to-justice-for-911-insurance-fraud-by-dr-kevin-barrett/

  13. Pre-election Obomber promise: I shall have the most transparent administration in history (fingers crossed behind his back).

    “We tortured some folks.” “If you want to keep torturing prisoners, a felonious crime violating US and international law, you can keep torturing prisoners.” Obomber never permanently agreed to not torture prisoners. Of course he does not want the past revealed, because it’s exactly what the US shall do in the future.

    Interesting that US soldiers who commit mass murder, shooting innocent Iraqi non-combatant civilian children sleeping in their bed, never earn the moniker “radicals,” which western media strangely reserve exclusively for those “insane Islamic nut jobs.” Ditto soldiers who urinate on dead Muslims and light the bodies on fire (likely some while still alive). Ditto scum of the earth soldiers painting so-called “Christian” cross on bombs. Never mind that CIA-financed ISIS employ likeness of such individuals (some women even) as poster stars to recruit Muslims all over the globe to seek out and kill Westerners wherever they live (San Bernardino), as punishment for the evil we perpetuate all over the glove, strangely always directed at persons w/darker skin than ours.

    Do CO’s or higher-ranking officers ever get familiar w/prison food when these events are uncovered? No, likely swift promotions.

    You pathetic war-mongering alleged followers of Christ shall have some ‘splainin to do one day. Without the unbridled support of Zionist Christians, all foreign military excursions would end immediately.

  19. The key issue here is that in withholding these pictures for as long as he has, he has set up a situation wherein instead of being part of the past they will rise up as the present. Obama is big on cover up it appears like his pal, Rahm. It never works and it doesn’t help.

    The public has a right to know. They may not like it but they should know it. Besides the pictures it is time to take on the authors of this abuse no matter what their status and investigate them and prosecute them. I’m talking to you Dick Cheney!

  20. Judges and U.S. Supreme Court justices are the real weak-link in the system for not providing Judicial Review. They shoukd require a constitutional amendment instead of distorting the meaning of constitutional rights and restraints.

    Alexander Hamiltion in speaking of “Judges as Guardians of the Constitution” essentially said “constitutionality” always should supersede legal precent or tradition. For example: not all articles and amendments are clear but the 4th Amendment is one of the clearest in both it’s letter & spirit – if it was fundametally flawed it should have been amended in the 1970’s instead of being ignored and distorted by the courts.

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