[Marxism] LA Times: Release the torture photos

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-photos14-2009may14,0,1797091.story
?track=rss
>From the Los Angeles Times
Editorial
Release the torture photos
The Obama administration is wrong in withholding pictures portraying
detainee abuse.

May 14, 2009

The release of dozens of new, graphic images of detainees being abused by
their American captors would almost certainly reignite international rage.
It could lead to an angry backlash in the Middle East and to more jihadi
recruits, as the Abu Ghraib photographs did in 2004. It could even lead to
new outbursts of violence at a moment when the Obama administration was
finally hoping to put the last eight ugly years behind us.

But the truth must out. The Pentagon was right when it agreed last month to
abide by a judge's order and release the photos, in a case brought by the
American Civil Liberties Union. And President Obama was wrong Wednesday when
he reversed that position.

It's terrible that the president was faced with such an unpalatable choice,
but it's just one of the many awful results of the culture of torture and
lawlessness put in place by the Bush administration. This country has
already alienated allies and seen its moral standing crumble. Now, as we try
to get to the bottom of what happened during those years, we have to
acknowledge that doing so might put us in further danger.

Obama's announcement that he would seek to bar the release of the photos
came after Gens. Ray Odierno, David McKiernan and David Petraeus all
expressed concern that releasing them could cost American lives. A Pentagon
spokesman said they believe it's the "last thing we need" at this critical
moment in Afghanistan.

But what's the alternative? For one thing, it will be very difficult to keep
the photos under wraps at this point. Shouldn't the administration at least
get credit for making them public, rather than waiting for them to be leaked
to Seymour Hersh (as the Abu Ghraib pictures were)?

What's more, the judges in the case -- both in District Court and at the
appellate level -- have already rejected the government's argument about the
danger to soldiers. The judges saw at least some of the photos.

Like most Americans, we have not yet seen the images and don't know what
they'll portray. But until they're made public, they seem likely only to
inflame the imaginations of America's friends and enemies. The worst will be
assumed. And let's not forget Obama's promise, on his second day in office,
to "hold myself as president to a new standard of openness."

Photographs are part of the historical record. Think of these images: black
men hanging from trees in the American South; emaciated concentration camp
survivors; prisoners shackled into cramped "tiger cages" in South Vietnam.
Would this be a better world without those photos?

Trying to cover up atrocities because someone might be angry isn't right and
won't work. Instead, the Pentagon should release the photos while making it
clear that the U.S. repudiates such barbaric behavior and is committed to
dismantling the culture that allowed it to occur.






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