In spite of Defense Department concerns that there could be a backlash, the Obama administration will release over 44 photos showing alleged abuses of U.S.-held prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. –DB
The Los Angeles Times
April 24, 2009
By Peter Wallsten, Julian E. Barnes and Greg Miller
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Obama administration agreed late Thursday to release dozens of photographs depicting alleged abuses at U.S. prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush White House.
The decision will make public for the first time photos obtained in military investigations at facilities other than the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Forty-four photos that the American Civil Liberties Union was seeking in a court case, plus a “substantial number” of other images, will be released by May 28.
The photos, examined by Air Force and Army criminal investigators, are apparently not as shocking as those taken at Abu Ghraib, which became a symbol of U.S. mistakes in Iraq. But Defense Department officials nevertheless are concerned that the release could incite another backlash in the Middle East.
Some of the photos show U.S. service members intimidating or threatening detainees by pointing weapons at them, according to officials who have seen them. Military officers have been court-martialed for threatening detainees at gunpoint.
“This will constitute visual proof that, unlike the Bush administration’s claim, the abuse was not confined to Abu Ghraib and was not aberrational,” said Amrit Singh, a lawyer for the ACLU, which reached the agreement as part of a long-running legal battle for documents related to anti-terrorism policies under President George W. Bush.
The decision comes as President Obama is trying to quell a drive to investigate Bush-era practices, which was spurred in part by his release last week of Justice Department memos detailing the Bush administration’s legal justifications for harsh interrogations. But the photos and other possible disclosures stemming from the ACLU lawsuit threaten to stoke the controversy.
Other disclosures to be considered in the weeks ahead include transcripts of detainee interrogations, a CIA inspector general’s report that has largely been kept secret, and background materials in a Justice Department investigation into prisoner abuse.
In each instance, Obama and his administration are being forced to decide whether to release the material entirely, disclose it with redactions, or follow the lead of the Bush administration and fight in court to keep it classified.
Last week, Obama opted to demand relatively few redactions in the Justice Department memos. The disclosures prompted Democratic lawmakers and liberal interest groups to demand a congressional investigation — and possible prosecutions — of officials in the Bush administration.
With Obama trying to push ambitious healthcare, tax and environmental legislation through Congress, an official said that the White House rejected the idea of appointing a Sept. 11 Commission-style review of Bush’s anti-terrorism policies, fearing it could become a partisan distraction.
Now the release of photos and other materials threatens to heighten the political pressure on Obama as he seeks to balance competing constituencies.
The liberal base that elected him wants wide disclosure and an investigation. But pursuing that course risks alienating the intelligence and military communities that are crucial to Obama’s success.
Moreover, he must deflect attacks from conservatives such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, who accuses Obama of putting the country’s security at risk and would surely affix blame to the new president if another attack occurred. Cheney has asked that additional documents be released showing the successes of harsh interrogation tactics — handing Obama another politically complicated decision.
The president has tried to walk a fine rhetorical line, heeding liberals’ calls to release the interrogation memos but appearing to argue against further investigation or prosecution by saying “this is a time for reflection, not retribution.”
Instead, he managed to anger both constituencies.
“My sense is the president was trying to please a lot of audiences at one time, and that over the last [week] he has totally failed to put the mind of the intelligence community at ease,” said Mark Lowenthal, who was a senior advisor to George J. Tenet when Tenet was CIA director. “He is going to end up with a national clandestine service that will not be willing to do anything because they feel he will not be there for them when they need him.”
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday in an appearance at Camp Lejeune, N.C., that he worried about a potential “backlash in the Middle East” from the release of the photos.
“There are a number of suits that we’re dealing with for detainee photographs and so on,” Gates said. “And so there is a certain inevitability, I believe, that much of this will eventually come out; much has already come out.”
The Bush administration had opposed the release of the photos.
Late Thursday, Obama administration lawyers notified U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in New York that the government would release 44 photos plus a “substantial number” of other images.
Copyright 2009 The Los Angeles Times