Letter to President Obama Asking For Release of Torture Photos Signed by 27 Organizations

[Better Believe It]

Letter to President Obama Asking for Release of Torture Photos


June 1, 2009

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama:

We write to express our profound disappointment with your decision on May 13 to block the release of photographs depicting abuse of detainees by U.S. personnel overseas. We urge you to reconsider that misguided decision and to renew your commitment to our nation's most fundamental principles.

On your first full day in office, you eloquently proclaimed your administration's commitment to the principle of open government. You said: "A democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires transparency." That is exactly right. The hallmark of an open society is that we do not conceal information that reflects poorly on us - we expose it to the light of day, so that wrongdoers can be held accountable and future abuses prevented.

These photographs will no doubt be disturbing, as they should be. And we understand your concern about reaction to them overseas. But suppressing information to prevent public anger is inconsistent with democratic principles. The Pentagon should release the photos while reaffirming to the world that the U.S. repudiates such barbaric behavior and is committed to dismantling the culture that allowed it to occur. In the end, full disclosure of the crimes committed by our government will make us all safer.

The last eight years have demonstrated all too painfully that excessive secrecy creates a fertile environment for grave abuses. Those abuses have tarnished our nation's reputation and damaged its security. We will restore our standing as a leader on human rights not by hiding images of our failures, but by demonstrating that those failures will not go unpunished.

As you yourself have stated, "the Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears." Suppressing photographs of abuse places your administration on the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of history. We hope you will reconsider your decision.

Sincerely,

Alliance for Justice
American Civil Liberties Union
Amnesty International
Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, NYU School of Law
Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)
CREDO Mobile
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Feminists for Free Expression
Government Accountability Project
Human Rights Watch
International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA)
Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School
National Security Archive
OMB Watch
OpenTheGovernment.org
PEN American Center
Physicians for Human Rights
Progressive Librarians Guild (PLG)
Reporters Without Borders
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
Veterans for Common Sense
Veterans For Peace

http://aclu.org/safefree/torture/39710prs20090601.html

[Thrill]

1. Didn't he already say he wasn't releasing them?

[T Wolf]

3. But I thought we were allowed to make our wishes known to Obama. Was I wrong about that? nt

[Better Believe It]

4. If you take the time to actually read the letter you would know the answer to your question

Won't you please take the time to read the appeal to President Obama?

[Thrill]

5. I did read it. But he already made his decision.

[Better Believe It]

8. President Obama can take the position he held on this issue before he changed it

He's changed his position one or more times on single payer, the Employee Free Choice Act and other issues.

President Obama can do it again!

[zulchzulu]

2. The photos are online already...

I'm not providing the link.

[Better Believe It]

6. Are you worried about Homeland Security if you post the alleged link?

Don't worry.

We won't let them send you to Gitmo without a fight!

[villager]

7. Are these groups part of the "far left" that some on DU are whining about?

Like those Methodists, for example?

:shrug:

[bigwillq]

9. Add my name under Sincerely.

:mad:

[Clio the Leo]

10. Tell me WHY again we want the photos released?

That's a serious question, not a challenge to debate.

I'm concerned that people want these released so that an investigation can inuse ... do we all realize these photos are a part of a completed investation? So then is our problem with the investigation that has already taken place? If so, why are we simply not asking that the investigation be reopened and not simply for the release of the photos.

I feel like I'm missing something.

The photos were assembled as part of about 200 criminal investigations conducted before and after the disclosure in 2004 of widespread prisoner abuse by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib, the former Iraqi prison that the U.S. military turned into a detention and intelligence-gathering center.

Previously released pictures taken at Abu Ghraib -- depicting Iraqis stacked naked in piles and pyramids, tormented by dogs, chained to beds and placed in other painful or humiliating positions -- enraged many in the Middle East and became symbols of the deeply unpopular U.S. invasion and military occupation of Iraq.

But no commanding officers or Defense Department officials were jailed or fired in connection with the abuse, which the Bush administration dismissed as the misbehavior of low-ranking soldiers.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a Freedom of Information Act request in October 2003 for all photographs pertaining to U.S. military detention operations. It filed a lawsuit the following year after that request was denied.

Last September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ordered the photographs released. The Bush administration challenged the ruling, but the court denied that petition in March.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/13/AR2009051301751.html

I would STRONGLY urge everyone to read that article if you haven't already.

[Better Believe It]

11. You should read the letter. If you read it your question will be answered!

[Clio the Leo]

12. I read the letter....

... and now I just read it again.

I'm seeing a lot of idealistic flourishes without any practical application.

I see this part, "The hallmark of an open society is that we do not conceal information that reflects poorly on us - we expose it to the light of day, so that wrongdoers can be held accountable and future abuses prevented."

Again, those photos have already seen the light of day ... if not by the general public, then by the DOJ/DOD (which I assume is who the "criminal investigations" part of what I quoted is referring to.)

Do I need to SEE photos of a murder victim for his killer to receive justice? Do I need to SEE photos taken in a rape kit to be satisfied that the rapist was prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law?

Of course not.

Now, one could argue that because no upper-level DOD folks were admonished or found negligible then the case should be investigated further, but I dont see anyone asking for that.

Justice can be served without the photos being public. We do it in courtrooms every day across the land.

Again, what am I missing?

[Number23]

13. A bit more reading here, Clio

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3902955

This is an incredibly complicated situation.

[Clio the Leo]

14. Yep, I saw that.....

... not quite as simple a matter as we like to presume is it?

[Better Believe It]

15. You don't have to look at the photos.

[Clio the Leo]

16. And neither do you......

.... in order for justice to be served I mean. ;)

[Better Believe It]

17. Sorry. I don't believe in concealing war crimes. Do you also object to photos of the Nazi

concentration camps being released?

[Clio the Leo]

18. "Night" painted a far more vivid image of the holocaust in my mind....

.... than the photos did. As did a documentary I saw as a very small child that didn't show the bodies because it was considered too graphic for broadcast TV at that time.

The most powerful artifact in the National Holocaust Museum isn't a photograph but the stench of the shoes left behind by the victims at Majdanek.

I believe in showing proper respect for the dead .... and the abused. *I* would prefer that photos from the Holocaust not be as public as they are.

And again, I'll ask my question, would you be in favor of crime scene photos from your hometown murder cases be published in the local news? Or even simply made available for public perusal at the court house?

Again, justice is served daily without that being necessary.

[xiamiam]

21. i dont need to see the photos to know that war crimes occurred..

I know they occurred..I dont need see the photos to believe that some of my fellow Americans cultivated depravity and sadism under the guise of patriotism....I just want it to stop..and I want those people prosecuted..the perpetrators..the planners..the gatekeepers...the pundit enablers...I dont need or want to see the photos....and if they were released I wouldnt look at them....its horrendous enough when reading the written account..i dont need to be further convinced of the crime...it just needs to be treated as such

[ShortnFiery]

19. Yes, and beyond all else ... Obama is playing chess.

:( :thumbsdown:

[EFerrari]

22. How many reasons do you need?

Because freedom of information is vital to democracy?

Because censorship is not a practice we should support?

Because government secrecy breeds corruption?

Because hiding war crimes from public view makes them less real to the public?

[krawhitham]

20. Iraqi Prime Minister does not want them released either

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/69213.html

[Better Believe It]

23. He says that U.S. troops would have to come home early if photos are released. Good!

All the more reason to release the photos!