Pentagon Blocks Release of New Abu Ghraib Photos
| "The first step to abandoning practices that are repugnant to our laws and national ideals is to bring them into the sunshine," said Pheneger. |
WASHINGTON, August 14, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The Pentagon has moved forcefully to block the release of new photos and video evidence of prisoner
abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, arguing it would endanger American lives.
The request is contained in a motion filed in federal court by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Richard Myers in response to a plea by several human rights groups to make public 87 photographs and four videotapes made at Abu Ghraib by Specialist Joseph Darby, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Darby triggered the Abu Ghraib scandal in 2004 when he turned over to military investigators extensive photographic and video evidence implicating his fellow military policemen in brutal abuse of prisoners.
The pictures showed inmates piled up naked on the floor, cowering in front of snarling military dogs, chained to beds in stress positions, with women's underwear put over their heads, and forced to stand naked in front of female guards.
But so far, only a fraction of pictures made by Specialist Darby have been released to the public.
The suit comes at a particularly sensitive time for the administration of President George W. Bush, which is trying to stem the erosion of public support for its policies in Iraq following a new spike in US casualties in that country.
As many as 61 percent of Americans expressed their disapproval of Bush's
handling of the Iraq war in the most recent Newsweek magazine survey.
Failure
| The Abu Ghraib scandal has drown global condemnations. |
A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and several other human rights groups seeks information on the treatment of detainees in US custody and the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture.
It also contends that prisoner abuse is systemic, The Washington Post reported.
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero insists the real reason the Pentagon is fighting the release of the new evidence is because it demonstrates "the failure of American leaders who placed our young men and women in compromising situations and are now seeking to blame them for it."
Myers said in court papers that the release "would aid the recruitment effort and other activities of insurgent elements."
He argued that should the pictures become public, they will "endanger the lives and physical safety of the
soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines in the United States Armed Forces presently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan."
He said the situation in Iraq is "dynamic and dangerous," with US forces and their allies having to face on average 70 attacks a day.
But in a response to his arguments, the ACLU submitted a declaration by retired US Army Col. Michael E. Pheneger, who said Myers "mistakes propaganda for motivation," The Post reported.
Pheneger said he believed that releasing the photos would lead to a thorough public examination of the administration's decision to approve interrogation techniques that the Army had long prohibited.
"The first step to abandoning practices that are repugnant to our laws and national ideals is to bring them into the sunshine and assign accountability," he averred.
Eight low-ranking US soldiers have been convicted or voluntarily pleaded guilty in the wake of the scandal that has drown global condemnations.
A Pentagon probe has cleared all top US commanders of any criminal responsibility.
Several US dailies had revealed that US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and then top US commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, gave free reign to US officers in charge of Abu Ghraib to adopt various torture and abuse tactics
used at the notorious Guantanamo detention camp.
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