Judge to decide on release of new Iraq prison abuse photos
Cox News Service
Monday, August 15, 2005
WASHINGTON — A showdown is set for Monday in a New York federal court over the Defense Department's refusal to release a new batch of photographs and videos showing U.S. soldiers abusing detainees in Iraq.
The 87 photographs and four videos were taken by Spc. Joseph M. Darby, the Army military policeman who ignited an international maelstrom last year when he turned over photos to authorities that revealed soldiers mistreating, sexually humiliating and threatening inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad.
Government lawyers say publicly releasing the images would "endanger the safety and lives of individuals, including soldiers and civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere," according to legal documents filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The American Civil Liberties Union, lead counsel for a coalition of five civil liberties and veterans groups, is asking U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein to reject what it sees as the government's last-ditch effort to keep images from Abu Ghraib from the public.
"There is a grave danger in shielding government misconduct from public scrutiny," lawyers for the coalition stated in their legal brief. "The best way for the government to address the reaction it fears is not by hiding misconduct, but by addressing it in a forthright and credible manner."
At issue is a lawsuit filed by the ACLU in June 2004 against the Department of Defense for failing to respond to a request for information about torture at Abu Ghraib and other detainee facilities that was filed under the Freedom of Information Act.
After hearing arguments Monday, Hellerstein will decide whether Darby's images should be released to the public and whether the government improperly redacted significant portions of their legal filings in the case. At least part of Monday's hearing itself will be closed to the public.
To date, the ACLU has obtained more than 60,000 pages of government documents regarding torture and abuse of detainees as a result of its lawsuit. But the photographs sought by the civil liberties groups are more controversial because they would be the first images of abuse released since Darby's initial batch of photographs.
The government filed its appeal on July 22, the very day it was supposed to comply with a request from Hellerstein to review and remove identifying traits from the images in preparation for his decision on whether to allow the public to see the pictures.
"After reviewing these images, DOD officials and officers expressed grave concern regarding the likelihood of violence occurring as a result of the release," states the government's legal brief.
In a sworn statement supporting that brief, Air Force General Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he feared the images would ignite protests and spur violence similar to the outrage that occurred following Newsweek's April 30 story — later withdrawn — alleging that the Koran had been flushed down a toilet at a detainee facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In the past, the government has used different legal reasons for refusing to release the Darby photos under the Freedom of Information Act. It has argued that the images would violate the privacy rights of prisoners as well as the Geneva Convention, which prohibits subjecting detainees to public humiliation.
The ACLU argued that allowing the government to cite a new exemption to the Freedom of Information Act at the 11th hour would "eviscerate the principles of open government and accountability enshrined in FOIA."
The group contends that the government is trying to hide the images to avoid accountability in the higher ranks for the torture allegations.
"The actions depicted in these photos and videos demonstrate the failure of American leaders who placed our young men and women in compromising situations and are now seeking to blame them for it," ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said in a statement.
"The real shame here is that our leaders left our troops out on a limb and now they are hiding behind a veil of rank and government office to avoid accountability," Romero said.
Retired Army Col. Michael E. Pheneger, a former military intelligence expert, disagreed with the government's argument that the release of the photos would spawn more violence.
"Our enemies seek to prevent the United States from achieving its objectives in the Middle East," Pheneger wrote in a sworn affidavit filed with the ACLU's brief. "They do not need specific provocations to justify their actions."
Open government advocates say the public deserves to know the truth about what happened at the Abu Ghraib prison and at other detainee facilities.
"It seems like the government is really grasping at straws to suddenly change its reasoning for keeping the images from the public," said Rick Blum, executive director of Openthegovernment.org, an umbrella organization of conservative and liberal groups concerned about government secrecy issues.
The government should have raised its concerns about the photos sparking riots from the beginning if it was truly a valid concern, Blum said.
"Again, we see secrecy keeps problems alive," Blum said.
On the Web:
ACLU and government briefs: www.aclu.org/torturefoia
Rebecca Carr's e-mail is rcarr(at)coxnews.com
