Bad news for the torturers…
Especially now that it has been proven that this was the result of the Bush Torture Policy, that this was part of an overall program of torture approved at the highest levels….and not the work “a few bad apples.” Or as Limbaugh put it, “blowing off steam.”
NEW YORK – March 17 – A federal court rejected a Bush administration request to reconsider a decision that ordered the Department of Defense to release photographs depicting the abuse of detainees by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected the government’s request to have the full appeals court rehear a decision from last September ordering the release of the photos as part of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking information on the abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody overseas.The Obama administration, which has not taken a position on the litigation, has 90 days to appeal to the Supreme Court if it chooses to challenge the September order.
“This decision is a stinging rejection of the Bush administration’s attempt to keep the public in the dark about the widespread abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody abroad,” said ACLU staff attorney Amrit Singh, who argued the case before the court. “These photographs demonstrate that prison abuse was not aberrational and not confined to Abu Ghraib. Release of the photographs would send a powerful message that the new administration intends to make a clean break from the unaccountability of the Bush years.”
Another test of the Obama Administration.
If they appeal to block the release, they are morally, if not legally, suppressing evidence of torture from being made public.
Mr. Holder?
Update: It also makes it worth referring to this essay again and reposting the video…
Senator Whitehouse Prepares the Nation for Torture Horrors
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Get your umbrellas ready. The shit storm will begin when those photos hit the public. Bush/Cheney humiliated our nation before the world. The more the images are seen the closer we get to the Truth.
This will be enough to take the economy off the front page for a cycle or two. Then again, I still haven’t seen or heard one word of follow-up to the NYT’s Pentagon Propaganda Generals since that was printed back in the Pleistocene Era anywhere except in blogs.
Words of Mass Diversion
Words of Mass Distraction
Words of Mass Division
Now we know it happened, we know it was bad, we know it continues. Is not “evidence” meaningless if we know NOTHING will be done about it.
We still have that 30% embracing torture if it “saves American lives”, you know who I’m talking about the “redstaters”. On the “left” you have the non-impeach Nancy Pelosi. By that alone allowed it to continue unquestioned for another two years.
Why specifically at this time when the US is hated round the world for financial shenanegans would a re-release, perhaps a full graphic disclosure complete re-release be beneficial? I’m going to pull a Nancy and say, gee whiz, that is just not productive.
Are you a global player? If not you are screwed.
release all of the truth. The one that is fully documented that is apparent to the world given the fall on every level. To redact is absurd, both financially, politically and has now caught up with reality. The lies cannot stand they do not even work to uphold a reality that is falling. I worked voted for Obama but in actuality voted worked for a justice or a principle far removed from the politics we globally must suffer under, unless we unhook from this bogus ‘system’ that rains down on all our heads, collectively. People call for righting the financial system, the foreign policy system they are all the one system the one that tells us to let go of our humanity and work for evil. The masters of evil that I truly hope go broke our last best hope.
I don’t share your optimism re Whitehouse, esp. since I got an email from him lauding Leahy’s truth commission, and asking for money for Leahy. Maybe I’m being too judgmental, though.
This will be a very interesting next 90 days for many reasons. In my estimation, a perfect storm re the torture issue is brewing for early June (also end of time for the “task force” reports engendered by Obama’s exec orders in January).
Best, V.