Judge orders action over photographs depicting US military abuse

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/05/department-of-defense-federal-order-detainees-photographs



Some photographs, which document treatment of detainees after 9/11, are said to be more disturbing that the infamous images of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib uncovered in 2004.

Judge orders action over photographs depicting US military abuse
Oliver Laughland
Wednesday 4 February 2015

The US Department of Defense has been given a week to explain why it has not yet complied with a federal court order to list the individual exemptions for the disclosure of over 2,000 photographs depicting military abuse of detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq.

At a district court hearing in Manhattan on Wednesday, judge Alvin Hellerstein described the consequences of the government’s decade long court battle to suppress the photographs, as a way “to obtain a very substantial delay” on disclosure.

“I have a feeling where we are at this point – to make up a phrase – at a line in the sand,” Hellerstein said, instructing counsel for the Defense Department to submit in writing how long it would take to comply with the ruling made in August 2014, or to appeal the order.

The American Civil Liberties Union has been fighting a transparency case against the Defense Department since 2004. Some photographs, which document treatment of detainees in detention facilities after the September 11 attacks, are said to be more disturbing that the infamous images of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib uncovered in 2004.