NYT: Govt Defies Court Order to Release Iraq Abuse Photos

Government Defies an Order to Release Iraq Abuse Photos
By KATE ZERNIKE
Published: July 23, 2005


Lawyers for the Defense Department are refusing to cooperate with a federal judge's order to release secret photographs and videotapes related to the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.

The lawyers said in a letter sent to the federal court in Manhattan late Thursday that they would file a sealed brief explaining their reasons for not turning over the material, which they were to have released by yesterday.

The photographs were some of thousands turned over by Specialist Joseph M. Darby, the whistle-blower who exposed the abuse at Abu Ghraib by giving investigators computer disks containing photographs and videos of prisoners being abused, sexually humiliated and threatened with growling dogs.

The small number of the photographs released in spring 2004 provoked international outrage at the American military.

In early June, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of Federal District Court in Manhattan ordered the release of the additional photographs, part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union to determine the extent of abuse at American military prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan and at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/23/politics/23abuse.html

Go ahead--abuse your power, disgrace yourselves, ignore a court order and wipe your snot-nose faces with our Constitution!

I'll just pull up my lawn chair, start poppin the corn, and I'll fill my 128 oz Big-Gulp cup with ice and Diet Coke--and watch the sparks fly!

If it's another scandal you want---you got it!

Good grief! The Democrats couldn't have dreamed up a more ideal Republican administration. At this rate, the Reps lose power quickly and it'll be decades before they ever control the White House again!

that the victims in these tapes are women and children?

I bet a million that they don't, but I would love to be wrong.

:grr:

cabal that various law enforcement agencies could muster up a posse and arrest the lot of 'em for various crimes. Must be getting friggin close to the point where honorable people in government service have seen enough to realize the entire junta is illegitimate and needs to be put in jail cells, preferably on-board a plane heading for the Hague.

...and politicians demonstrating such flagrant abuse of power and disregard for the rule of law, can the nation really afford to allow the bad character judgement of Bush to sit on the Supreme Court for decades?

the American people shall not be allow to witness the crime committed in your name. To do so will result in criminal proceeding against the criminal. Therefor, for the safety of the present administration and for the sake of stability and remaining in power we cannot allow our crimes to be witness by the American people.

We also understand that the American people judgement of right and wrong will not take into consideration the goodness of a profitable and greedy corporation. Hence we feel that they all should be disqualified from being the jury. We further feel that such criminal exposure will lead to further destabilization of the country and we the few cannot yet impose our will on the many cause our RAYGUN yet to be tested in Iraq. We therefore beg for more time to get ready
our preparation for martial law and will reveal such crimes when we are able and ready to impose our will on the many through martial law.

I fear you are very close to the truth....

tO JAIL WITH THEIR ASSES!

They'll refuse on national security grounds, and they'll find a higher court willing to play along.

The only hope of this evidence seeing the light of day is for it to be leaked. Highly unlikely.

I'll bet it wouldn't take two years to get some reaction from this white house!

Just refused to cooperate, ignore court orders and declare the whole thing illegitimate.

I'm sure that would have been just fine with the Republican Congress.

Low-life cowards.


But we already knew that...

is showing what it is made of. No regard for the law, human rights, the US Constitution. They will do as much as they can get away with. The US Congress has got to act now. If not, anarchy will follow.

And it's already here.

When I was younger and more idealistic (five years ago), I truly believed that we could not lose our freedom; not because of Congress, not because of the Justic system or the constitution, but because of the people. I believed that we would rise up against any attempt to propagandize, censor or limit our civil liberties. Now, I know better. Not in my wildest dreams do I see the American people rising up against this government. Ever.

Of course, not enough to appear in force, and dreadfully under-armed. And they'll be swiftly slaughtered. Oddly, the prime candidates for such come out of the right wing, the "militia" types, not the "commie pinko red" left the neocons so love to berate. Apparently whoever tells the FBI what to investigate is far more "concerned" about elderly hippies carrying concealed flora in their hair and Armani-clad desk jockeys filing FOIA requests than machinegun-toting Klansmen or church-burning bigots who are the ones so hellbent on unlawful activity.

Anyway, the whole neocon affair was effectively a "velvet revolution" since they didn't really do it by force of arms. A more relevant question is what they've done to prevent a retaliation in kind for that. The most obvious thing they've arranged is the COINTELPRO revival and other police state tactics, but doubtless there is an "active, layered defense" against the people of the US actually expressing their own political will, e.g. systems of blackmail and/or exclusion of elected representatives.

You basically do whatever the FUCK you want to do.

No need to follow any lawful orders whatsoever.

for refusing to comply with a court order?

Come on folks, time find these bastards in contempt of court and get it over with.

will look like from the inside of a prison cell.

That doesn't apply anymore?

The idle rich have taken over this country and believe the law does not apply to them.

Which Judge reads the sealed, lame ass excuses?

They lost this case in the courts; there is no legal remedy for them. This is refusal to obey a court order.

move along, march in line.

Keith Olbermann will talk about it!

and not be penalized? If one of us did this, wouldn't we go to jail?

that since it controls the military, there's nothing the courts can do to them. These are indeed fascist times.

Remember, Nixon came very close to using the military to defy the Supreme Court when it ruled against him in U.S. vs. Nixon, upholding the court order to turn over the tapes which contained the "smoking gun" episode.

I know...........but a girl can dream..........

People not up to speed about this and the release date (yesterday) might be now; let's hope this story continues to grow, inform and piss people off!

didn't *really* apply to them, or they didn't *really* have to take the test with the rest of the students.

According to the article, the WH is planning to submit a sealed note that will explain why they can't obey the court order.

Apparently, y'all, they have a *good* reason why they don't have to obey a court order. No biggie!

.
.
.

I mean,

If the United Nations is irrelevant . . .

:shrug:

I have been wondering where they were...

It's been a month and a half since the photos were ordered to be released.

On a related note I wonder what kind of jacked up hell Spc. Darby is going through as the whistle blower. Wonder but perhaps don't really want to know... Hope everything is well on his behalf.

because it deserves it.

there are probably a whole lot of people who deserve a kick for this one.

Starting at the top of the government food chain.

But I assume that, if it ever sees the light of day, it'll be redacted to a fare-thee-well anyway. "We're not releasing the pictures because Commander Cuckoobananas and Defense Secretary Rumfilled said we didn't have to. So there. Whatcha going do to about it, you effete activist nattering nabob of negativism? By the way, NATIONAL SECURITY. WAR. WAR. TERRA. TERRA. FEAR. RUN. RUN. THEY'RE UNDER YOUR BED."

The pictures are so dreadful that they will inspire "terrorists" around the world (and especially Iraq) to re-double their efforts to kill Americans. If they pick their court carefully they may well get the ruling they want.

Of course "terrorists" will continue to attempt to kill Americans anyway. Without the pictures, they will be able to paint even more lurid mental pictures of what the real thing must contain.

The real reason they want to suppress this evidence is that it would shock a good section of the U.S. public into questioning Bush's war because of what is being done in their name.

plain and simple.

moment. Let's keep track of WHICH pols actually speak out on this outrageous crime.

I beleive he held in a recent case that the president has ABSOLUTE authority over captives in war to determine what to do with them, including torture and other avoidances of the Geneva Conventions, detaining indefinitely, executing, refusing a trial or hearing with any sense of due process, render to other nations without presenting evidence, etc, all wihtout regard to the detainees US citizenship status. So, withholding photos? It's the president's perogative. Refusing to follow a federal court order related to detainees? Fuhgeddaboutid. Now what do you suppose Roberts would do in this case when it comes before him at SCOTUS?


Wait for the rabid GOP response when the next presdident is a democrat and wants to use any of these powers.

God only knows what repercussions there will be. I had no idea this was the kind of things that happened MY GOD......

Remember the backlash when the original photos showed up on TV?
I heard people claim TV shouldn't have done so.
This time they will be ready to kill the messenger, lets hope the media has the balls to do the right thing.

BTW: DU has been aware of the horrendous nature of these new photos for over a year now...

The Democrats need to question Mr. Roberts about what he would do if he were the judge in such a situation.

Question: What would you do if the government refused to release info to you as a judge?