Daphne Eviatar of The Washington Independent wrote last week in Glenn Greenwald's blog: Attorney General Holder: Look at the torture photos. It's a thoughtful piece about the Obama administration's resistance to releasing more torture photos as part of investigating the torture under the Bush administration. "Although Bush Justice Department prosecutors claimed they didn't have the facts to support prosecuting anyone for the mysterious deaths and disappearances of detainees hauled out of Bagram and Abu Ghraib in body bags, the photographs -- which two courts have now ordered the Obama administration to turn over -- would seem likely to provide some of the missing evidence."
"Amrit Singh, an ACLU lawyer handling the case, answered that for me yesterday. 'The argument the government has put forward is unacceptable because it would afford the greatest protection from disclosure to records that depict the worst kind of government misconduct. That is fundamentally inconsistent with FOIA. And it's fundamentally inconsistent with democracy.'
It's a good point. Though I want to protect our troops as much as anybody, it turns out the law wasn't drafted to protect Americans from retaliation that might result because their country did something illegal, or even just really embarrassing. If it were, then evidence of any illegal or upsetting U.S. government conduct would be exempt from disclosure. And that would defeat the entire purpose of the Freedom of Information law."
No comments:
Post a Comment