The US administration asks an appeals court to stop the release of prisoner abuse images, showing that Obama has fully backtracked on his promise of transparency.
In a motion filed Thursday in a New York federal appeals court, the Obama administration said that it did not want the photos to be available to the public, arguing that they could lead to violence against US troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and even Pakistan.
“[Distributing the photos poses] a clear and grave risk of inciting violence and riots against American and coalition forces, as well as civilian personnel, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the motion said.
The court filing also included two semi-classified statements by the top US commander in Iraq, General Raymond Odierno, and the head of US Central Command General David Petraeus, who leads US military activities in the Middle East and Central Asia.
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“[The release of the images] would… further endanger the lives of US soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors, civilians and contractors,” said Petraeus.
Odierno also claimed that Iraqi officials had told him the release of the photos, which are believed to number in the thousands, could disrupt democratic progress in Iraq before the national elections.
Last month, Obama’s administration said that it would comply with a court order, which was issued following a lengthy Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. The order said the pictures must be released by May 28.
Earlier in May, however, Barack Obama reversed his position, saying that he did not feel comfortable with his previous decision.
The new US administration’s U-turn on the issue drew a heavy backlash from the ACLU, which expressed outrage and said the decision “makes a mockery” of Obama’s campaign promise of transparency.
While Amnesty International said that it was disappointed, other US human rights groups also accused Obama of following in the footsteps of former president George W. Bush.
News of the US government’s official stance came as Press TV released some images of the maltreatment of prisoners by US soldiers, confirming an earlier Daily Telegraph report, which revealed the photos of abuse at Iraqi jails include images of rape and sexual assault.
Washington-based investigative journalist Wayne Madsen emailed the horrific images to Press TV, rejecting allegations by neoconservative media that they were fake.
Madsen said when some of the disputed photos were randomly published by the Boston Globe in 2004, neoconservatives made the same accusations against the paper.
The Daily Telegraph report focused on information provided by Major General Antonio Taguba, a former army officer who published a report in 2004 into the abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Contradicting an Obama administration claim that photos did not include pictures of sexual abuse, Taguba said the images showed mistreatment, torture, and rape.
May 30th, 2009 at 6:18 am
I just can’t fathom where this sickness comes from,for someone to do the things they do,let alone photograph them……….
dextercheeslorsxxc Reply:
May 31st, 2009 at 6:09 am
people of britain are being tortured everyday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....annel_page Britain has talent
May 30th, 2009 at 9:22 am
I’m being tortured by the torture propaganda, please waterboard me just to make the sniveling screeching across the chalk board STOP!!!
A Helping Hand Reply:
May 30th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Gladly. I’d love to help you to understand why torture is wrong.
Afterward, we’ll stack you and some of your friends naked and take some photos. We should probably keep you wake for at least a few days and analy rape you with a flashlight just to be sure we cover all bases.
Where would you like to meet?
Jim Zinc Reply:
June 1st, 2009 at 4:45 am
Thank-you “A Helping Hand”, I couldn’t have said it any better!
Jim Zinc Reply:
June 1st, 2009 at 4:44 am
Well “pitofdoom”, why don’t they throw you into some prison cell and shove it up your…
I don’t think you you call it “sniveling” when you end up with health problems for the rest of your life. But then again, I suppose people like you would like that.
May 30th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
A crime has happened and your banning it?
This is like hiding your own and someone else’s crimes and in other words supporting criminals/crime.
JAIL BOTH.
May 30th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
New Channel – Updated Daily
Helping bring the infowars to the sheeple!
http://www.youtube.com/MrALEXJONES
Come now and exclusively just for you
“SCOOP” Aaron Russo’s Reflections and Warnings
Thank you patriots for helping to awaken
the people to the tyranny that is taking
over our great nation!
You are the REVOLUTION!
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!
A.J.
May 30th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
The Executive Office does not have the power to withhold evidence of any crime. It does not have the power to over rule the court.
Power out of order is defined by, corrupt and illegal New World Order.
Any individual that carries out New World Order corrupt and illegal action, rather than the direct order of the Constitution, is subject to correction. Enemies of the Constitution, foreign or domestic, are subject to correction and public review.
The court reaction to any criminal act in this case, be it the unbecoming conduct by the Executive Office or the criminals that committed the original offense, must be swift. The court must issue a warrant for arrest for all parties in this case and the Attorney General must enforce the arrest order through the FBI and Secret Service.
Failure, to issue a warrant to secure order, subjects the court to penalty. Failure to carry out the order by the court, defines the fact that the court is now out of order and is now subject to direct order from anybody enforcing the law in this case.
In order to expedite the direct order issued through the court, all crime linked to this case must be exposes for public review. Warrants for arrest for members of the Executive Office, law enforcement, military personnel and even the judge that issued the order to release justice in this case upon any point of order defined by failure, dereliction.
The judge has delayed reaction to unbecoming conduct and is out of order. The judge is not in accordance with direct order, has not ensured the rule of law is enforced and all guilty parties are corrected in a swift legal order of defense by the Constitution.
Failure to obey direct order defined by the spirit of the Constitution carried by all persons of the court, military, be they foriegn or domestic, is treason against the Constitution. Persons own interest are defined in agreement with life, liberty, freedom and justice for all in accordence with love and mercy, the call to order …among all nations
At this point in American history, it is clear, the people of the United States have no defense. It is also clear, the nations of the Earth have embraced not only the monitary delusion of the New World Order leadership among all nations but, the same corrupt spirit in power and authority in this case has been resided longer with them. The contempt spirit resides in power in all nations. It is not only monitarily defined, the fallen spirit of America in this case has been present among nations, tongues and man for millenia and is now over flowing from the cup of fornication’s.
This case defines the eminent threat that exists in the world, not only by foreign parties that seek to disrupt and destroy persons that stand fast in accordance with the mercy of the Constitution but, this case personifies the deadly threat that exists in all branches of government and among the silent public private partners.
Collectively, rape, torture and murder defines the strong delusion given to all nations tongues and man. The lack of love and mercy is expanding to the point of order …as time is contracted and definite.
This case is a travesty that defines the power and influence of a pandemic far more subtle and deadlier than any snake in the field.
It is the spirit of contempt. It is without mercy for the Holy Spirit of God in Christ and defines the fact; what was done to Yahhsua as he stood fast, doing no harm and as a result of carry out direct order, risen and sustaing the will of the Father on Earth as it is in Heaven, so shall persons of the New World Order subject all flesh to the same standard. The New World Order is defined by action against God in Christ, it rejects mercy and has not the Holy Spirit. It is the evil principality of the air. It leaps as a frog from the Euphrates, having been made bitter by a fallen star, offering the root of strong delusion …as wormwood unto all nations, tongues and man.
A Patriot Reply:
June 1st, 2009 at 9:57 am
Well Said!
May 30th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Bush is still pulling the strings somehow and has his FOCKING HAND UP OBAMAS @SS LIKE A PUPPET.
May 31st, 2009 at 7:16 am
They could just make it a state secret like that have most of the evidence of the governments complicity in 9/11, and the run up to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. There is a hell of a lot of stuff made secret that we need to know in order to make informed decision’s about our future.
May 31st, 2009 at 7:28 am
We have strong evidence that the killers at Columbine were sodomized by sheriff’s deputies and were taking revenge at the school. Obama and Clinton knows this but do nothing to expose it. The Jefferson County Colorado government is involved in child trafficking. The gang is known as the fat cats. John Ramsey is a fat cat. In the ransom note, it states,”John, you aren’t the only fat cat in town.” Google Judi Chases Amber Alert for more information about the corruption that led to the Columbine tragedy and the Jon Benet murder.
http://theportalsmemoirs.com/
http://columbinefamilyrequest.org/
May 31st, 2009 at 9:39 am
The local liberal/lefty/sheeple ninnies in my area here (SE Vermont) hate the fact that I got Alex’s ‘The Obama Deception’ on the local cable access station (something y’all should be doing nationwide) and they HATE the fact that truth they can’t/won’t deal with is on what they feel should be THEIR tv station and only for crap they prefer to see like ‘Democracy Now’. Read their kvetching and how they only demonize Alex and me since they can’t debate the facts presented, they only say it’s ‘nutty’ and an ‘insult to their intelligence’ (as if they have any) > >
http://www.ibrattleboro.com/ar.....4#comments
May 31st, 2009 at 11:07 am
NO RAPE PICTURES. OBAMANATION? SHAMEFUL THE AMERICAN MILIITARY CAN STOOP THAT LOW!!!! WELL, HaVE A LOOK AT THIS http://www.aztlan.net/iraqi_women_raped.htm
STOP PROTECTING THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION.
May 31st, 2009 at 12:52 pm
[...] Torture Obama to ban PoW photos exposing rape, torture http://www.prisonplanet.com/ob.....rture.html U.S. Military Investigator Confirms Women and Children Were Raped At Abu Ghraib [...]
May 31st, 2009 at 6:13 pm
They had no rape or torture pics, Dick Chaney is busy masturbating to them in his underground bunker and smoking a J with Hussein.
June 1st, 2009 at 12:54 am
What has happened to honesty and dignity? Another lie from another puppet in charge.
June 1st, 2009 at 4:24 am
all you need is a small bomb in a public-free area and a not reading “release ALL pics or else” and we’re sorted
June 1st, 2009 at 4:53 am
this niger they are calling your president has no say in the matter he is a puppet criminal for the real criminals
June 1st, 2009 at 10:11 am
In response to all the dumb comments above-
1) Bush authorized enhanced interrogation techniques. That didnt include rape or sodomy. These are 2 different subjects, stop lumping them together to make the story something it isn’t.
2) Who here knows someone who is serving in the US military? Are you willing to let them die for the release of these pics? Because that is what will happen. US troops and innocent civilians will die, just as they did when the false story of flushing a Koran down a toilet in Gitmo was released.
3) the fact you tards lump all these stories together to make it look like something it definitely is not, is childish and so telling of your lack of desire for the truth, and your real goals of just looking cool or like you know something others dont……
Pretty stupid.
June 2nd, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I agree with Obama on his position to withhold the photos, but not for the same reason. I don’t think the American people can handle the events that are captured on those photos. It would totally shatter the majority of the populous’ view of the America and what we really stand for.
June 7th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Great work, well researched