#1. Senators and Congressmen already saw all of these pictures and videos over a year ago. They weren't all released to the public at the time (in fact, none of them were released to the public. The few that were on 60 Minutes, in newspapers etc. that we all saw were the ones that were leaked) but all members of Congress saw them. They are all from the same single batch taken at the same time (2 years ago) involving the same small group of soldiers. Therefore there is nothing "new" here to anyone who was paying attention.
#2. Seymour Hersch's comments can be dismissed out of hand because he routinely exaggerates and lies.
#3. Senator Graham's comments about "rape and murder" were made BEFORE he saw the photos and videos with the rest of Congress. He said that based on things he had heard, rumors, not things he had seen. After members of Congress saw the full spectrum of photos/short videos, they said they were disgusted but when pressed by members of the press as to whether the photos were significantly worse or shocking than the ones already seen, most said "no", they were generally along the same lines as the ones already seen but it was mostly the quantity and viewing them one after the other for an hour or so that was so disturbing.
#4. Rumsfeld's comments, again over a year ago, about "sadistic" behavior is generally about the kind of behavior we already knew about, nudity, some beatings, dogs, sexual poses, etc.
#5. The reason not to release these photos is that they do not advance the story. The ACLU claims they want them released to prove that these weren't "isolated incidents". But since these are the same batch of photos taken by the same small group during the same narrow time window as the ones we already saw, they don't advance that story at all. The only thing served by releasing these photos would be prurient interest and anti-Americanism. Because you know that if Al Jazeera, etc (not to mention our own MSM) gets a hold of them they will intro them as "new Abu Ghraib photos" and most people around the world will think these are a new set of photos taken recently. Nothing could be farther from the truth or more harmful to our troops on the ground.
Thanks. I did not know that. I'd only heard moonbats bring this up at all, and it had really been bothering me.
Besides the distortions, it seems that Editor & Publisher has had to insert a correction in the middle of the story that basically turns it into a complete non-story:
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"[NOTE: The New York Times on Tuesday ran a somewhat confusing correction on its story about this episode: "An article on Saturday about a federal judge's order regarding photographs and videotapes related to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal misstated a deadline and the response by Defense Department lawyers. The government was given until Friday to black out some identifying details in the material, not to release it. Defense Department lawyers met that deadline, but asked the court to block the public release of the materials. They did not refuse to cooperate with an order for the materials' release."]"