Pentagon to Release Photos of Detainee Abuse Next Month

By Ann Scott Tyson

Friday, April 24, 2009 "Washington Post" -- 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.

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.

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.

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.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates yesterday said it was "unrealistic" for the government to try to keep photos of detainee abuse a secret, noting that the ACLU lawsuit and others like it made it likely that such photographs would be made public.

"There is a certain inevitability, I believe, that much of this will eventually come out," Gates said. "Much has already come out."

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.

A Bush administration request that the full Court of Appeals rehear the case was denied March 11. Singh said she has been told that the Obama administration will not ask the Supreme Court to review the photograph case.

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.

"I also was quite concerned, as you might expect, with the potential backlash in the Middle East and in the theaters where we're involved in conflict, and that it might have a negative impact on our troops," he said.

. © 2009 The Washington Post Company