Appeals Court Orders Release of Photos of Abused Detainees
A New York City-based federal appeals court has ordered the government to release 21 photos of abused detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the government could not justify blocking release of the photos based on fears they would provoke terrorists and incite violence against U.S. troops in Iraq, the Associated Press reports. A more specific threat is required under a Freedom of Information Act restriction on the release of information that harms public safety, the court said in its decision issued yesterday.
“It is plainly insufficient to claim that releasing documents could reasonably be expected to endanger some unspecified member of a group so vast as to encompass all United States troops, coalition forces and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the court said in its decision (PDF posted by the ACLU).
The court ruled in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union that had sought the photos, taken by service members, according to a press release by the group. The court affirmed a judge’s ruling for the release of the photos with identifying facial features removed.
ACLU staff attorney Amrit Singh said the photos “demonstrate that the abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody abroad was not aberrational and not confined to Abu Ghraib, but the result of policies adopted by high-ranking officials.”
