There is no justifiable reason to not release these pictures.
Worried about inflaming the Islamic world, really? Abu Graihb pictures, Koran burning stories, American soldier collateral damage photos have been released despite the predictable damage they have done to our counter-terrorism efforts. Aren’t these latter photos and news stories far more inflammatory?
The abu ghraib photos were leaked by the uncle of one of the culprits after he was unable to secure a blackmailed light sentence for that culprit. The goal was to taint the Iraq war and cost GW Bush his re-election. The persons guilty of the offenses were already being prosecuted.
And the photos DID cause terrorists to flood into Iraq from other countries (the so called insurgency after Saddam was toppled).
I blame the NY Times which kept it on the front page for 30 days (yet nick berg’s murder barely got 2 cover mentions and 7 days coverage total, if I recall).