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.
ACLU, ACTIVIST JUDGE PING
Time to get out our best pictures of T.P.R.O.P. Methinks?
Fine. We should start a law suit to have the photos of beheadings and September 11th available on the mass media.
this judge really deserves to sit, tied in a chair in a darkened room to understand the enemy we're fighting.
My gosh, these ACLU folks really are as dangerous as the islamfacists.
They just can't wait till they can blame the U.S. GI blood on Bush's atrocities.
What a bunch of traitors, no other word.
"They have nothing on him"
Agreed! But when did that stop them. Look what Dean is saying about DeLay - "he should just go back to Houston and go to jail" - and DeLay has not been indicted, charged, or convicted of anything .. but it hasn't stopped them from the smear job.
I agree with your assessment. The Abu Ghraib stuff was about intimidation - not torture. If they want torture, we should release the VIDEOS of the torture perpetrated upon the Iraq people by Saddam. I watched them because I wanted to know. They were horrible. One guy had his arm strapped to a board - then they chopped off his arm and blood spurted everywhere while the guy was screeming and writhing in pain. That is torture!
Too bad the lefties can't be forced to watch a couple hours of the Saddam videos - especially the ones where they put people into a shredder - feet first. After a couple of hours - Abu Ghraib would mean NOTHING.
I have stopped watching this stuff so much - it was getting to me. I have a couple other projects in the works and it helps to just get away from it all.
Plus, I'm reading Col Hunt's book, "They Just Don't Get IT" - and it's fantastic. Everybody should read it. I'm finding out stuff that is just stunning.
Good let's see it. Hopefully more maddrassa graduates will riot and kill each other because of it.
Really! What are the military trials for then?
I don't agree with your assessment. The Abu Ghraib stuff was all about whorish women wanting to see different men's penises. I don't care what the media does or says: I care about the military functioning as fierce fighting unit, and not allowing it to be reduced to the level of adolescent little girls trying to fulfill their sexual curiosity.
This Abu Ghraib thing has been the biggest cover up in military history. Everyone in the military knows what was really going on there -think not. The lead investigator on this issue is woman -a career military feminist. She's been trying to drag this out as long as she can to get all the women off, but what do think this says about the sexual politics that's absolutely destroying the military like never before? Do you know how many men are getting chaptered out of the military left and right on sex-related charges? Karpinsky has made a career of filing sexual harassment charges against men, yet she a Fast get nothing from presiding over this complete failure of command.
"The Abu Ghraib stuff was all about whorish women wanting to see different men's penises."
ROTFLOL!!! Wow! What an immagination.
With the terrorists, they have their perfect victims--they foreigners, so if they get them freed, they won't be coming around to THEIR neighborhoods. (Like most liberals they seem to be deluded that when the attacks come the terrorists will somehow exempt them, apparently forgetting 9-11 happened in Liberalville Northeast and Liberalville East.)
Ah, but the latest is, Karpinski is busted back to Colonel.
It was all over FR for a bit.
I have some shocking photos of a prominent New York federal judge cavorting on the beach in his teeny Speedo swimsuit with four (very) young women in spaghetti bikinis.
And others of an overweight federal judge on a nude gay beach on Long Island.
And, what's this(!?), even more photos of a drunken federal judge being ejected on his arse from an Upper East Side pickup bar.
I'm gonna' sell the photos to the New York Post - I'll airbrush the judge's face out first - because "I don't believe with suitable redaction there is an unwarranted invasion of privacy."
This is bizarre,it's almost unreal.Make sure you treat the enemy right,and they can kill us all if they want,just be nice!When will Americans wake up and take back this country,or is it too late?
"A Man Without a Country"
He's lucky the Geneva convention doesn't apply to terrorists in Abu Ghraib.
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