Posted on 05/26/2005 6:45:33 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK (AP) - A federal judge has told the government it will have to release additional pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, civil rights lawyers said.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein, finding the public has a right to see the pictures, told the government Thursday he will sign an order requiring it to release them to the American Civil Liberties Union, the lawyers said.
The judge made the decision after he and government attorneys privately viewed a sampling of nine pictures resulting from an Army probe into abuse and torture at the prison. The pictures were given to the Army by a military policeman assigned there.
ACLU lawyer Megan Lewis told the judge she believes the government has pictures of abuse beyond the Abu Ghraib images that sparked outrage around the world after they were leaked to the media last year.
Some of the thousands of pages of documents the government has released to the ACLU seem to refer to such images, and the government has not denied that additional photos exist, she said.
The judge decided some pictures from Abu Graib could be released to comply with the Freedom of Information Act while others must be redacted or were not relevant to the ACLU's request, Lewis said.
She said the judge's findings likely would clear the way for the release of other pictures of detainees taken around the world by U.S. authorities.
"I do think they could be extremely upsetting and depict conduct that would outrage the American public and be truly horrifying," she said outside court.
The judge ordered the transcript of comments made during his viewing of the pictures sealed. He did not disclose his findings in court, but said his order "will lead to production (of the pictures) or further proceedings."
"Further proceedings" presumably referred to possible appeals by government lawyers, who declined to comment as they left the hearing. A message left with a government spokeswoman was not immediately returned.
Before viewing the pictures, the judge said in court that he thought "photographs present a different level of detail and are the best evidence the public can have of what occurred."
Government lawyer Sean Lane argued that releasing pictures, even if faces and other features are obscured, would violate Geneva Convention rules on prisoner treatment by subjecting detainees to additional humiliation or embarrassment. He said the emotional wounds would be reopened because detainees could identify themselves and because the public would learn their identities.
The judge, however, said, "I don't believe with suitable redaction there is an unwarranted invasion of privacy." He also said he didn't think it was likely that detainees in redacted photos would be able to be identified.
The judge's decision stems from a lawsuit the ACLU filed in October 2003 seeking information on treatment of detainees in U.S. custody and the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture. The ACLU contends that prisoner abuse is systemic.
So far, 36,000 pages of documents and the reports of 130 investigations, mostly from the FBI and Army, have been turned over to the ACLU. The group is seeking documents from the CIA and the Defense Department as well.
Oh I'm sure Oprah, has set up a show with Abbas, to tell America how peaceful Islam is. :)
Jeff
At some point......well you all know what I'm feeling. It's time to start calling these people the true enemies that they are, not just in our forum but to every person who is in ear shot (or Buck shot).
The public has the right to see this stuff, but Paris Hilton's burger commercial is just immoral. Gotta love it.
I'd rather see John Kerry's military records. He reported through a mouthpiece that he signed his form 180 on May 9th(?) but that he had yet to submit it to the Dept of the Navy.
Federal Government to Klintoon appointed activist Judge and the ACLU......"Piss Off"
In other news today Federal Judge Liberalforbrains, a Clinton pick, ordered nuclear weapons secrets released to Iran and North Korea because it give the United States an unfair weapons trade advantage violating provisions of the anti trust law statutes.
Let's throw some more gasolene on the fire!
Idiots.
So the MSM stopped using pictures of 9/11 and people jumping out of buildings because it might upset Americans.
But they have no problem showing inflammatory pictures of what a few misguided and arrested individuals did in a prison overseas, even if it inflames Muslims.
Oops, the liberal's agenda is showing.
Tell him hell no.
Yep. It seems the anti-American ACLU and this liberal judge want as much American bloodshed as they can get.
If it isn't deadly - it isn't liberal enough.
Everyday, at every turn, the Judicial system and the leftists seem bound and determined to destroy this nation. I am sick of these rulings by the bench.
Reagan fired the ATCers ... can't these F***in' commie judges be relieved by fiat of SOME F***in' kind?
What good does more pictures do anyway?
It's a damned good thing I don't drink or do drugs or this would be the night I end up in jail or dead.
Yeah ... I'm really F***in' pissed!
No, I will not < / rant >
Let's see what happened,then let everyone see the beheadings,our soldiers bodies hanging on a bridge,the childrens bodies ripped apart by the so called "insurgents" car bombs.
Oh,guess the sheepoles will only see the Abu Ghraib photos,nevermind.
These Liberal Judges are communist through and through. Their goal is to destroy this country.
You don't release information like that in time of war. It will only cause more of our troops to die.
Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored , and unsung.
Yes, he knows quite well what he's doing. He's a liberal activist judge.
In order to build a Socialist utopia, the society we have now has to be destroyed and rebuilt from the rubble up.
He knows exactly what he's doing!
Now is the time for the Executive branch to tell the Judiciary to go and pound sand.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.