New York - 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..
...his order "will lead to production (of the pictures) or further proceedings."
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 gov't will have to change it's objections for their next appeal? Maybe they can argue releasing even redacted photos of US soldiers torturing Iraqi civilians will lead to riots and violence, as in the Newsweek Koran as toilet-paper report?
Posted by Cieciel at May 28, 2005 02:29 AM