Just In: “BUSH ADMINISTRATION FILES 11TH HOUR PAPERS BLOCKING THE RELEASE OF DARBY CD PHOTOS AND VIDEO OF ABU GHRAIB TORTURE”
These photos, from the CD provided to U.S. Army officials by Army reservist Joseph Darby in April 2004, were ordered to be released — by a federal judge — today.
July 22, 2005, New York, NY—The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) today denounced the latest efforts of the Bush Administration to block the release of the Darby photos and videos depicting torture at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib. […]
In June, the government … received an extension from the judge stating that they needed time in order to redact [faces in] the photographs and videos. They were given until today [but] at the eleventh hour filed a motion … based on an entirely new argument [requesting] a 7(F) exemption from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act to withhold law enforcement-related information in order to protect the physical safety of individuals. [HUH?]
“This is absolutely unacceptable,” stated Michael Ratner, President of CCR. “We cannot move forward from this scandal until we have a full public accounting and independent investigation into what happened at Abu Ghraib. The government cannot continue to hide evidence of torture.”
Today’s move is the latest in a series of attempts by the government to keep the images from being made public and to cover up the torture of detainees in U.S. custody around the world, says CCR.
Barbara Olshansky, Deputy Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, stated, “The public must be informed of what is being done in our name. It is this Administration that has put our troops at risk and caused world-wide anger by fostering policies that promote torture and refusing to hold those responsible publicly accountable.”
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- Support the Center for Constitutional Rights.
- Visit the CCR’s Guantanamo Action Center.
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