Today federal judge ordered the release of more — a lot more — photos and videos from Abu Ghraib. We speculated in a show a couple of weeks ago what those photos might reveal; they are, from the accounts of the members of Congress who’ve seen them, pretty horrific. We put together two shows about torture this summer, one a look at the nature of torture and how it changes those who practice it, one about the possible release of exactly this additional material.
Torture, June 23, 2005
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Abu Ghraib, Take Two, July 27, 2005
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The question, of course, is how to justify the release of more material that confirms what we already know, that abuses took place at Abu Ghraib. It’s hard, even in the loose editorial voice we allow ourselves on this blog, to take a stand on this, but I’ll offer two quotes and just say that they both seem to make sense to me.
The United States has taken two hits as a result of the previous photographs. The first hit was obviously the photographs themselves, … which clearly undermined the American image, and undermined the legitamacy of our position in the world. The second hit we took was when we didn’t apologize in a direct, immediate, forthcoming way, and when we attempted to confine responsibility to the lowest possible levels. We sent exactly the wrong signal around the world.
Stephen Walt, Open Source
Our nation does not surrender to blackmail, and fear of blackmail is not a legally sufficient argument to prevent us from performing a statutory command. … Indeed, the freedoms that we champion are as important to our success in Iraq and Afghanistan as the guns and missiles with which our troops are armed.
US District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein
Bring it on! If all those responsible for the policy not only the physical acts at Abu Ghraib were held accountable in the first round there would be no need for us to see any more of this. I will turn my head ( or try to) but let some more people get angry and feel ashamed.
I guess we are weighing the further energy this will give to terrorists who are already quite motivated but may gain more recruits versus our need to examine and cleanse. Since our elected leaders have failed us, we can still be thankful for the courts.