Good decision. Who cares about the ACLU?
Obama reverses course on alleged prison abuse photos WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama said Wednesday that he told government lawyers to object to a court-ordered release of additional images showing alleged abuse of detainees because the release could affect the safety of U.S. troops and "inflame anti-American opinion."
The Defense Department was set to release hundreds of photographs showing alleged abuse of prisoners in detention facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"I want to emphasize that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the images we remember from Abu Ghraib," the president said on the South Lawn of the White House. "But they do represent conduct that didn't conform with the Army manual."
Obama said the publication of the photos would not add any additional benefit to investigations being carried out into detainee abuse -- and could put future inquires at risk.
"In fact, the most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would further flame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger. ... I fear the publication of these photos may only have a chilling effect on future investigations of detainee abuse," Obama said. Watch the president discuss his detainee photo decision »
The release was ordered in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. It followed Obama's decision to release Bush-era CIA documents showing that the United States used techniques like waterboarding, considered torture by the current administration.
Earlier, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the president met with his legal team last week "because he did not feel comfortable with the release of the photos."
"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," he added.
Amrit Singh, an attorney with the ACLU, said the president's decision "makes a mockery" of his promise of transparency and accountability.
"Essentially, by withholding these photographs from public view, the Obama administration is making itself complicit in the Bush administration's torture policies," Singh said. "The release of these photos is absolutely essential for ensuring that justice was done ... for ensuring that the public could hold its government accountable, and for ensuring that torture is not conducted in the future in the name of the American people."
Singh said his organization is prepared to "do whatever it takes" in order to have the photos released.
The announcement Wednesday is a reversal of what Gibbs said April 24, when he argued that the White House had no problem releasing the photos, based on the court decisions handed down.
"There was a lot of back and forth in his mind over the course of several weeks about ensuring that this protected those that keep us safe, that it protected our national security," Gibbs said then. "The president came to the determination that the decision that he made was consistent with all of those criteria."
The reversal of Obama's decision, Gibbs said, came because the president didn't believe that the government made the strongest case possible to the court and asked the legal team to make the case.
Gibbs added that the president wasn't pressured by the military to hold back on releasing the photos.
But Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that grave concerns coming from top military brass may have influenced the president's decision.
"What's motivated my own change of heart on this and perhaps influenced the president is that our commanders ... have expressed very serious reservations about this ... and that the release of these photographs will cost American lives," Gates said.
"That's all it took for me," he added.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, who sent a letter in March urging the president to hold off on releasing the photos, also weighed in on the president's decision.
The president "took to heart the idea it might do more harm than good," the South Carolina Republican said. "I don't know what the court will eventually do, but the troops need their commander in chief standing up for them, because the people that will be affected by the release of these photos have done no wrong."
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said after Wednesday's news that the release of the photos -- no matter how painful -- is a "critical step toward that accounting. The American people deserve no less."
"It is true that these photos would be disturbing; the day we are no longer disturbed by such repugnant acts would be a sad one," he wrote.
Images released in 2004 of detainees being abused and humiliated at the Abu Ghraib military prison in Iraq sparked widespread outrage and led to convictions for several prison guards and the ouster of the prison's commander.
The Pentagon shut down the prison in the wake of the scandal, but it reopened under Iraqi control this year.
Officials at the Pentagon have said the photos, which were set to be released by May 28, are from more than 60 criminal investigations between 2001 and 2006 and show military personnel allegedly abusing detainees.
"The disclosure of these photographs serves as a further reminder that abuse of prisoners in U.S.-administered detention centers was systemic," ACLU National Security Project Director Jameel Jaffer said before Obama's decision.
But Pentagon officials reject ACLU allegations that the photos show a systemic pattern of abuse by the military.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman has said the Defense Department has "always been serious about investigating credible allegations of abuse."
More than 400 people, Whitman said, have been disciplined based on investigations involving detainee abuse. The discipline ranged from prison sentences to demotions and letters of reprimand.
The Pentagon wanted to prevent the images from being put into the public domain but decided to release them after losing two court cases, according to Whitman.
Andrew McCarthy, writing on the Web site of the National Review, issued a harsh warning Tuesday: "American soldiers, American civilians, and other innocent people are going to die because Pres. Barack Obama wants to release photographs of prisoner abuse."
"The photos at issue won't tell us anything significant about prisoner abuse, and they may very well serve to distort reality. What seems certain is that they will get Americans killed," he added. iReport.com: Should photos be released?
But groups such as Human Rights First have argued that releasing photographs of alleged abuse is vital.
The group, in a release on its Web site, says it has set up a nonpartisan inquiry to "evaluate the full cost of abuses, look at how we got there, and come up with safeguards so we don't repeat the same mistakes."
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/12/prisoner.photos/index.html
