U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein has ruled on Friday the decade long case of letting the world see the disturbing images of how military treated its prisoners and thus must release photos revealing the abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American Civil Liberties Union wants to make these public given that the government takes accountability.
Spokesman Lt. Col Myles Caggins III said that the Defense Department is studying the ruling for making further responses in court, although the ACLU representatives have not responded to any comment on Friday. According to the ACLU the pictures “are manifestly important to an ongoing national debate about governmental accountability for the abuse of prisoners.”
This fight over the photographs dates back to the early years of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan invoking the images at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq which created an outrage after emerging in 2004 and 2006. In the 2004 lawsuit, the ACLU indicated to the Abu Ghraib photos as examples of records the agency was looking for on the treatment of the detainees.
It is uncertain how many more photographs may exist but the government has stated it has 29 pictures from 7 different sites in Iraq and Afghanistan and it is suspected there are 100s or 1000s of more, according to Hellerstein’s statement from a ruling in August. He also said he saw some photographs which “are relatively innocuous while others need more serious consideration,” and has any images which would be released must be redacted to protect the identities of the people in them.
Some of these photographs, captured by service members in Iraq and Afghanistan were part of criminal investigations, whereas others show “soldiers pointing pistols or rifles at the heads of hooded and handcuffed detainees.”
The government has argued for a long time now that releasing such photographs could stimulate further attacks against the U.S. forces and government officials stationed abroad. Officials have said that the risk has not declined as the U.S. military role in Iraq and Afghanistan reduced.
Navy Rear Adm. Sinclair Harris, the vice director for operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated in a December court filing that “indeed the dangers associated with release of these photographs is heightened now,” especially amongst the rise of the Islamic State militant group. He said that the Islamic state “would use these photographs to further encourage its supporters and followers to attack U.S. military and government personnel.”
Amongst the lawsuit, Congress has passed a 2009 law permitting the government to keep photographs secret if the secretary of defense classified them as elements endangering the U.S citizens or the government or military personnel. The defense secretaries have done so but Hellerstein has said that the government has not been specific enough.
