Appeals Court Refuses To Revisit Decision Ordering Defense DeptTo Release Prisoner Abuse Photos [View All]

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Source: ACLU

Appeals Court Refuses To Revisit Decision Ordering Defense Department To Release Prisoner Abuse Photos (3/17/2009)

Photos Depict Abuse By U.S. Personnel At Facilities In Afghanistan And Iraq

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NEW YORK – 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."

Since the ACLU's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in 2003, the government has refused to disclose these images by attempting to radically expand the exemptions allowed under the FOIA for withholding records. The government claimed that the public disclosure of such evidence would generate outrage and would violate U.S. obligations towards detainees under the Geneva Conventions.

Read more: http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/39039prs20090317.html