Excerpt: "A federal judge ruled on Friday that the U.S. government must release photographs showing the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and other sites."
The unreleased images are said to be more disturbing than the photos from Abu Ghraib that shocked the world in 2004. (photo: Ewan Palmer/Reuters)
Judge Orders Release of Additional Abu Ghraib Photos
22 March 15
federal judge ruled on Friday that the U.S. government must release photographs showing the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and other sites.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan ruled that his order would not take effect for 60 days to give the U.S. Department of Defense time to decide whether to appeal.
The order is a victory for the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a lawsuit against the government in 2004 seeking the release of the photographs.
"The photos are crucial to the public record," ACLU deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer said in a news release. "They're the best evidence of what took place in the military's detention centers, and their disclosure would help the public better understand the implications of some of the Bush administration's policies."
The Department of Defense did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Hellerstein ruled last August that the government had failed to show why releasing the photographs would endanger American soldiers and workers abroad, but gave the government a chance to submit more evidence. In Friday's order, however, he said additional evidence had failed to change his decision.
The photographs would be released in redacted form to conceal the identities of any individuals, according to court documents.
Former Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut said in 2009 that there were nearly 2,100 photographs, according to Hellerstein's August opinion.
Hellerstein also wrote in August that he had reviewed many of the photographs and that some were "relatively innocuous while others need more serious consideration."
A handful of images depicting abuse at Abu Ghraib emerged in 2004, prompting a public debate over whether the United States had tortured prisoners.
Hellerstein first ordered the government to turn over the photographs in 2005, but while that order was being appealed, Congress passed a law allowing the Secretary of Defense to withhold the photographs by certifying their release would endanger U.S. citizens.
The government has argued that the photographs are still shielded by that law, but Hellerstein rejected that argument last August and again on Friday. He said the Defense Secretary must review each photograph individually, and that the government has not proven that the Secretary did so.
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The 1%ers must deny anything that hinders their extracting resources from the earth. Fracking, oil exploration in the Arctic, coal mining, or even the vast use of pesticides used by agribusiness to produce huge crops. Whatever! That is where they make their money, and from that wealth, they gain and hold power. Secrecy and denial is their stock in trade.
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Why would they be concerned about killing a resident of America under the next republican president?
I don't understand as easily why he defers to the Israeli/Saudi alliance.
After all, the current president* doesn't appear to have any ideological positions on much of anything, and he certainly doesn't have any loyalty to anyone or anything.
So, what exactly is the hold that the House of Saud has on him?
Of course, maybe he will turn on a dime and welcome his new BFFs, the Ayatollahs in Iran if they build some monuments in his honor, buy up all the remaindered copies of "The Art of the Deal" or put his puffy mug on a series of brightly colored Iranian postage stamps. His fecklessness is boundless ... especially if there's money in it for him.
The Cheney/Bush administration doubled down on cooperation with these, their business partners, and focused on Afghanistan as the object of vengeance, instead.
History repeats itself as farce. There you have the whole meaning of the Trump regime.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/23/two-numbers-that-explain-why-trump-wont-sanction-saudi-arabia/
It's also 100% clear that trump thinks he's the "ruler" - the "king" and can do whatever he wants.
Look who his friends are, who he hangs with: his new love - Kim Jong-Un, Putin, Duarte, Xi, the guys from Poland,Hungary and any other 2 bit autocrat. His new love is as corrupt and brutal as they come and trump is sucking on his - thumb. The Saudi guy is just the latest trump love.
Trump thinks he's a mob boss, a bully who can push everyone around. In reality he is a small time wanna-be who is just a punk with a lot of $ (given to him by his daddy), and who is the antithesis of a a true leader.
He loves the autocrats while he calls anyone who does not suck up to him 6th grade names - Adam Schiff, Maxine Water, Hillary, Jim Comey, and so many others; he call our Allies silly names and tries to belittle them.
The world is on to him and friends and foe know who this guy is - and they are all laughing at him and us for putting up this imbecile.
So trump hugs the criminals and belittles our friends and leaders.
And the Congressional Repubs are enabling and rewarding this behavior. This will not stand.