Court Rules Government Can't Block Detainee Abuse Photos

 

NEW YORK, NY (September 22, 2008) – A federal appeals court today ordered 21 of 29 photographs that it said depicts prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq released to the public.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled that the photographs are "of critical public interest."

Release of the photographs was delayed while the U.S. Department of Defense appealed the decision, but later in the day the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned aside DOD's claim saying that the government's arguments were the same ones used unsuccessfully when they tried to prevent earlier pictures of abuse, including the ones from Abu Ghraib, from being released.

The appeal opposed the release of the pictures saying that the images might incite violence and provoke terrorists. They also claimed that releasing the photographs might cause soldiers' enemies to try to cause them harm. The appeals court rejected the DOD's claims and ordered the photographs released.

Hellerstein's ruling said the photographs, sought for public release by human rights groups in a 2003 Freedom of Information Act suit and supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, "depict abusive treatment of detainees by United States soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The suit sought the release of 29 photographs; the judge determined that 21 of the pictures related to detainee abuse.

When they are released the pictures will be "redacted"; facial features will be removed to prevent the subjects from being identified.

The pictures were taken in various locations by soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and the suit says the detainees were "clothes and generally not forced to pose." ACLU's lawyers said after the ruling that the photographs are additional proof that the abuse of prisoners held in U.S. military custody abroad was not confined to the prisoner abuse shown in the infamous photographs from Abu Ghraib, and the Abu Ghraib was not "an aberration."

""Their release is critical for bringing an end to the administration's torture policies and for deterring further prisoner abuse," ACLU attorney Amrit Singh said. "This is a resounding victory for the public's right to hold the government accountable."

The U.S. government could try to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. Otherwise the pictures can be released by the ACLU within weeks.

 

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