Barely a few weeks after the Obama administration promised to release the torture photos of detainees by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan, the administration has now gone back on its word and is trying to cover up the torture by preventing release of the nasty photos.

On April 24, 2009, President Obama felt release of the photos would not harm the U.S. troops. Just 20 days later, President Obama feels release of the photos will harm American troops.

The U.S. Defense Department told a federal court on April 23 that it would release by May 28 a ‘substantial number’ of photos depicting the abuse of prisoners by U.S. personnel. And that is the promise that’s broken now.

The torture photos are from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan at locations other than Abu Ghraib.

What’s Happening?
The U.S.military – the torturers – squeezed Obama’s cojones and this lily-livered poltroon caved in. That’s what happened.

Obama, what ever happened to all your feel-good promises of transparency in government?

Here’s the drivel that Obama’s Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters at a White House briefing on Wednesday:

The President believes that the existence of the photos themselves doesn’t actually add to the understanding that detainee abuse happened, was investigated, that actions were taken by those that did indeed or might have undertaken potential abuse of detainees, and that those cases were all dating back to finishing in 2004. The President doesn’t believe the release of photos surrounding that investigation does anything to illuminate the existence of that investigation, only to provide some portion of sensationalism.

Whoa. Since when did release of torture photos become sensationalism.

And this is what Obama himself told reporters today at the White House:

The publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals. In fact, the most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.

Read the government’s letter to the court on the change in decision.

Sad Day
The American Civil Liberties Union has been fighting hard to get the torture photos released.

This is what ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero had to say on Obama administration’s decision not to release the photos:

It is true that these photos would be disturbing; the day we are no longer disturbed by such repugnant acts would be a sad one. In America, every fact and document gets known whether now or years from now. And when these photos do see the light of day, the outrage will focus not only on the commission of torture by the Bush administration but on the Obama administration’s complicity in covering them up. Any outrage related to these photos should be due not to their release but to the very crimes depicted in them. Only by looking squarely in the mirror, acknowledging the crimes of the past and achieving accountability can we move forward and ensure that these atrocities are not repeated.

As we wrote a few weeks back, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s daughter Amrit Singh, a lawyer with the ACLU in New York City, played a key role in forcing the U.S. Defense Department prior decision (now changed) to release photos of American militarymen torturing prisoners.

Don’t let the animals get away with torture, Amrit Singh. Go get em.

  Amrit Singh