[Vision2020] "Harsh" Interrogations -As ye sow,

[bear at moscow.com]

We, the American People in general, and the American Military in particular have been
smeared 
with the stink of the Bush Administration, and the only way to get it off will be by the
FAIR trial 
of those responsible.

Can you imagine how the rest of the world will see things next month when the pictures are

released?

This appeared this morning in the Washington Post:

Pentagon to Release Photos of Detainee Abuse Next Month 
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer 
Friday, April 24, 2009; 11:19 AM

The Pentagon, in response to a lawsuit, will make public by May 28 a "substantial number"
of 
photos showing the abuse of detainees in prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan by U.S.
personnel, the 
American Civil Liberties Union said today.

The photos include 21 images depicting detainee abuse in facilities in Iraq and
Afghanistan 
other than the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, as well as 23 other detainee abuse photos, 
according to the ACLU and a letter from the Justice Department sent to a federal court in
New 
York yesterday. In addition, the Justice Department letter said "the government is also 
processing for release a substantial number of other images" contained in Army Criminal 
Investigation Division reports on the abuse.

"This shows that the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was not aberrational but was
systemic 
and widespread," said Amrit Singh, an ACLU staff attorney involved with the 2004 Freedom
of 
Information Act lawsuit that led to the promise to release the photographs. "This will 
underscore calls for accountability for that abuse." Singh called for an independent 
investigation into torture and prisoner abuse and said it should be followed, if
warranted, by 
criminal prosecutions.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates yesterday said that lawsuits are one of several factors
that 
make it likely that photographs depicting detainee mistreatment would inevitably be made 
public. He said it was therefore "unrealistic" for the government to try to keep such
photos a 
secret. At the same time, however, Gates voiced concern that the release of photos, along
with 
interrogation memos and other materials, could cause a "backlash" in the Middle East that
could 
negatively impact U.S. troops serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

The Pentagon has not stated when or how it will release the detainee photos, but a defense

official said the initial 44 would likely be made public close to the May 28 deadline.
"In conjunction with the photos and the memos, the department is very concerned this could

cause a significant backlash in the Middle East, and force protection is a matter of great

concern," said the defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the 
sensitivity of the matter.

The Pentagon has noted that it investigates all allegations of detainee abuse, and since
2001 
has taken more than 400 disciplinary actions against U.S. military personnel found to have

been involved in such abuse. Singh said she has been told that the Obama administration
will 
not ask the Supreme Court to review the photograph case, marking a turnaround from the
Bush 
administration, which filed a series of court appeals aimed at preventing the images from 
becoming public.

The Bush administration had argued that public disclosure of the photographs would unleash

outrage and also violate Geneva Convention obligations on the treatment of detainees.
But a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in September
2008 
rejected such arguments and required disclosure of the photos because of a "significant
public 
interest" in potential government misconduct.
The Bush administration requested that the full Court of Appeals rehear the case. That
request 
was denied March 11.




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