President Signs Law Giving Defense Department Authority To Exempt Photos From Freedom Of Information

[NewEngland4Obama]

ACLU Renews Call For Secretary Gates Not To Block Release Of Torture Photos

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WASHINGTON – President Obama yesterday signed into law a Homeland Security appropriations bill that grants the Department of Defense (DOD) the authority to continue suppressing photos of prisoner abuse. The amendment, which would allow the DOD to exempt photos from the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), is aimed at photos ordered released by a federal appeals court as part of an American Civil Liberties Union FOIA lawsuit for photos and other records related to detainee abuse in U.S. custody overseas, although it would apply to other photos in government custody as well. Earlier this month, the ACLU sent a letter to Secretary Robert Gates urging him not to exercise the authority to suppress the photos in their case, stating that the photos "are of critical relevance to an ongoing national debate about accountability."

"We are disappointed that the president has signed a law giving the Defense Department the authority to hide evidence of its own misconduct, and we hope the defense secretary will not take advantage of that authority by suppressing photos related to the abuse of prisoners," said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. "Secretary Gates should be guided by the importance of transparency to the democratic process, the extraordinary importance of these photos to the ongoing debate about the treatment of prisoners and the likelihood that the suppression of these photos would ultimately be far more damaging to national security than their disclosure. The last administration's decision to endorse torture undermined the United States' moral authority and compromised its security. A failure to fully confront the abuses of the last administration will only compound these harms."

More....
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/41364prs20091029.html

[katandmoon]

1. Look! The Obamas are opening the White House to trick or treaters!!!!

[FrenchieCat]

2. I understand that some are disappointed here....

But the pictures that I have seen, as have many in this world to date, and which are readily still available on the Internet as we speak have been seared into my brain until death takes me away.

They are not anything that I will ever forget.

I don't know if seeing more of them is going to make the truth any clearer; the United States tortured and tortured and tortured. At some point, IMO, it becomes more of a ghoulish game to believe that we need to see more of these. At some point, it is not only those who were tortured who have to live it all over again; it almost becomes everyone who didn't have a part in it, but is an American, that is being tortured.

But of course, I understand why some, on principle, wants more of these horrendous unforgetable photos shown.

[tabatha]

3. I think they should be left for a court case against Bush and Cheney.

[katandmoon]

4. But if Bush signed such a law, now that would be a COVERUP.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. So can they shown at the next Nuremberg Trials?

[ipaint]

6. Lieberman and Graham re-writing the FOIA for Obama.

"Two courts had ruled -- unanimously -- that the American people have the right to see these photographs under FOIA, a 40-year-old law championed by the Democrats in the LBJ era and long considered a crowning jewel in their legislative achievements. But this Lieberman amendment, which is now likely to pass, undermines all of that and -- as EBay founder Pierre Omidyar put it today -- its central purpose is to "legalize suppression" of evidence of American war crimes."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/10/08/photos/index.html

The release of these picture would bring back to americans the torture policy of the bush administration and Obama's administration would once again face having to actually DO something about those crimes. So in the name of NON transparency and against unanimous court decisions Obama took the easy way out and is allowing, once again, a cover up of crimes and criminals to walk.

If it is true as Obama claims these pictures are the same kind as the last ones then they need to be released. There is no moving forward with the rot festering away that was the bush administration. This is disgusting and if bush had done something like this DU would have exploded in protest.

If you can support this decision and the many others Obama has made regarding bush's executive privileges and their resulting crimes then you support those crimes.

[Name removed]

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[MadMaddie]

7. I have thought about this and something occurred to me?

We have all seen the horrific pictures of what has already been released right?

So let's think outside of the box for a moment - put on your hats to ponder "what if the pictures were even worse than what we have already seen"?, what if the the pictures are on such scale that if they are released that they in fact could incite the Muslim world even those countries that we are friendly with? What if? Are we trying to fix the mess that "boy wonder and his henchmaen left"?

Now having said that if those pictures are so horrific, they should be presented to the Hague under the request that the trials be closed in closed sessions and prosecution and convictions handed down. I would be totally okay with that.

I don't know what the answer is but what are your thoughts?

[firedupdem]

8. As long as we have soldiers in harms way.....I don't think releasing

more horrible pictures is the right way to go.

[ipaint]

9. As if the muslim world isn't totally aware of bush's war crimes.

No, the problem is Americans need to be reminded just what war crimes are being covered up by our new president.

The hypocrisy of democrats screaming bloody murder when bush was using his executive powers and the courts to set up a worldwide torture network and covering it up, to now excuse Obama his use of those same powers to continue to cover up the crimes is astounding and is exactly what the idiot 20% core bush supporters did.

[Bullet1987]

11. This is not about the muslim world though

This is about keeping the American PEOPLE in the dark. It's about showing that torture isn't just about waterboarding (which was probably the lesser of the torture techniques), and covering up the darkside of American Imperialism. What we've done in the name of Democracy would shock everyone. This isn't about the world, it's about US. This is one of my major beefs about Obama who I thought would be much more transparent.