http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/torture/new-gop-phrase-for-detainee-pictures-terrorist-propaganda-photos/New GOP Phrase For Detainee Pictures: “Terrorist Propaganda Photos”
Get ready to hear Republicans and conservative opinion-makers using a new phrase to describe the unreleased photos of detainees that are at the center of a white-hot political war right now: “Terrorist propaganda photos.”
The House GOP leadership just used the phrase for the first time this morning in a statement they sent to me. The phrase was cooked up in hopes that it will catch on with other GOPers, and it probably will do just that.
I got the statement after asking House Minority Leader John Boehner’s office for comment the news this morning that House Dems have decided to support allowing Guantanamo detainees to be tried in the U.S. Boehner spokesperson Michael Steel emailed:
“We still have not seen a comprehensive plan for how the Administration plans to deal with the detainees in Cuba. That’s what the American people expect and deserve. They don’t want politicians cutting deals behind closed doors to proceed in a slapdash, ad hoc fashion. Certainly not on important issues like bringing these detainees to the United States, or releasing terrorist propaganda photos.”
The phrase is a reference not to Gitmo, but to other detainee photos whose potential disclosure is at the center of a huge political fight. House Dem leaders oppose blocking their release, setting up a major showdown with Joe Lieberman, who wants to keep them secret at all costs.
The new phrase is a reference to the GOP claim that such photos help terrorist recruitment, and signals that Republicans think they can milk this one for all it’s worth. Get ready to hear it again, and again, and…