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Obama seeking delay of detainee photos release

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] US President Barack Obama has decided to seek a delay of the release of photographs depicting the allegedly abusive treatment of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, reversing an earlier decision, White House officials said Wednesday. Last month, the Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed to release at least 44 photographs pursuant to a court order. The photos were scheduled to be released May 28. Obama reversed that decision after meeting last week with White house lawyers, citing concerns over retribution against US troops serving overseas. Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also wrote to Obama last week to urge him to fight the release of the photos. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said during a Tuesday press briefing:the President has great concern about any impact that pictures of detainee - potential detainee abuse in the past could have on the present-day service members that are protecting our freedom either in Iraq, Afghanistan, or throughout the world. That's something the President is very cognizant of, and we are working to - we are working currently to figure out what the process is moving forward.The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) decried Wednesday's announcement, saying, "The Obama administration's adoption of the stonewalling tactics and opaque policies of the Bush administration flies in the face of the president's stated desire to restore the rule of law, to revive our moral standing in the world and to lead a transparent government." In a letter sent last month to Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the DOJ said it would comply with his 2005 order to release 21 photos, taken by an investigator at Abu Ghraib prison and later provided to the Army's Criminal Investigative Division after the Department of Defense (DOD) lost a challenge to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request brought by the ACLU. The DOD subsequently appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and lost. In the letter to Hellerstein, the DOJ informed him that they would not appeal their case to the Supreme Court, but instead would comply fully with the FOIA request.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on May 13, 2009 (boomark / email).