Adding to what Glenn Greenwald has to say on the subject of suppressing photographs of the mistreatment of detainees, I’d like to point out that the Freedom of Information Act is one of the key pillars that helps correct bad foreign policy decisions and to prevent them from happening in the first place.
For example, if seeing images of what the government is doing, and allowing to be done, is going to inflame world opinion against our nation’s foreign policies, then, in most cases, we ought not to be pursuing those policies.
I can imagine exceptions. I certainly understand that images can be used selectively in a propagandistic way. No single image, or series of images, can tell the whole story. Sometimes such compilations can be deeply misleading. The answer to that, though, is not suppression but more information that helps give a truer and more nuanced picture of reality.
The bottom line is that it is precisely because these images, if released, will reflect badly on our government that they have the power of preventing our government from continuing to do things that reflect badly upon it. That is the real value of the FOIA. Efforts to weaken the FOIA are really an acknowledgment that our foreign policy cannot be sustained in the light of day.
The counterargument is that the policies have already changed so we don’t need this lesson. It’s a weak counterargument. If our policies really have changed, the world will see these photos as historic artifacts and there will not be any increased violence against our troops in foreign lands. It is only if the world perceives that the photos depict current policy that we’ll face increased risk. Unfortunately, that’s what our government is worried about.
I believe our policies have changed in significant ways, and I think the world recognizes that. But, without accountability, our culpability for past actions is still outstanding.
