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Supreme Court Stops Release Of Detainee Photos
December 1, 2009 10:22 a.m. EST
Topics: United States, Politics
Kris Alingod - AHN Contributor
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The Supreme Court on Monday ordered an appeals court to review its decision that photos showing the treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq should be released. The Pentagon two weeks ago blocked the release of the photos despite the appeals court ruling, citing authority given by a new law passed by Congress. The images, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), prove that detainee abuse was widespread during the Bush administration.
In an order, the Supreme Court said the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit should reconsider its 2008 ruling now that there is legislation prohibiting the release of the photos.
The decision was praised by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. He said in a joint statement with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), "The Supreme Court has taken this important step to protect the safety of Americans who place themselves in harm's way to defend our security and liberty."
Lieberman and Graham co-sponsored a provision in the Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2010 signed into law in October that gave Defense Sec. Robert Gates the power not to release the photos if he thinks public disclosure "would endanger citizens of the United States, members of the United States Armed Forces, or employees of the United States Government deployed outside of the United States."
Gates issued a certification on Nov. 13 invoking the authority provided to him by the new law.
The ACLU has been fighting for release of the images. It made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and then filed the lawsuit in 2004 when it was denied by the Bush administration. A 2006 court ruling ordered 21 photos of prisoner treatment in Afghanistan and Iraq released, and the U.S. Court of Appeals in September last year upheld that ruling.
The Pentagon announced in April it was releasing photos in response to the lawsuit. It said at the time that more than 400 service members charged with detainee abuse since 2001 were found guilty of some form of misconduct.
The release was announced the same time as documents on aggressive prisoner interrogations were declassified by the Obama administration. Four Office of Legal Counsel memos were released; they allowed terror suspects to be interrogated by Bush administration using methods such as waterboarding or simulated drowning, which critics say is torture.
In May, President Barack Obama reversed his decision to allow the release of the photos, amid criticisms from the ACLU and praise from Republicans and an advocacy group, Military Families United.
"The publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals," the President had said. "The most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger."
The order from the Supreme Court is in response to a petition from the Obama administration that the high court hear its arguments against abiding by the 2008 appeals court ruling.
The ACLU says it will continue its efforts for public disclosure.
"We continue to believe that the photos should be released, and we intend to press that case in the lower court," ACLU Legal Director Steven Shapiro said in a statement. "No democracy has ever been made stronger by suppressing evidence of its own misconduct."
Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project, also said, "Their disclosure would both discourage abuse in the future and underscore the need for a comprehensive investigation of past abuses. And we continue to believe that permitting the government to suppress information about government misconduct on the grounds that someone, somewhere in the world, might react badly or even violently, sets a very dangerous precedent."
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