...that the wingnuts will spackle their screens with when this comes out:
Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the New York federal court granted a petition by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to release the materials after viewing eight sample photos last week. It is not known exactly what the 144 photographs and videos depict, but they are from the same sources as the graphic images of prisoners being piled up on top of each other, threatened by attack dogs and forced into sexually compromising positions that triggered scandal and outrage just over a year ago.
"These images may be ugly and shocking, but they depict how the torture was more than the actions of a few rogue soldiers," said ACLU director Anthony Romero. "The American public deserves to know what is being done in our name. Perhaps after these and other photos are forced into the light of day, the government will at long last appoint an outside special counsel to investigate the torture and abuse of detainees."
Government lawyers argued that releasing the photographs would reveal the prisoners' identities, a violation of their rights under the Geneva Conventions. But the ACLU said that objection could be easily overcome by blocking out the prisoners' faces. The judge agreed, and gave the White House until the end of the month to hand over the material.
More pointedly, the ACLU also said the government's reasoning was absurd because the violation of the Geneva Conventions began with the abuse, not with attempts to uncover it.
But a Pentagon spokesman indicated yesterday that the administration would not give up the materials without a further fight.
President Bush has come under increasing scrutiny over his repeated claims to be interested in spreading freedom around the world, most recently in the damning Amnesty International report on conditions at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.
Sunlight is the best antiseptic, as someone said. Yet wingnuts have a terminally troglodyte mentality and so all evidence of acts which result from their Dear Leader's "the Geneva Conventions start and stop at my leisure" philosophy must be forever stored in a cave, away from prying eyes that might be unsympathetic, and away from the sunlight which would go a long way in cleansing their germy policies.
They'll be outraged of course. They'll spew shit like "judicial activism!", "treason!", etc. Then they'll begin the excuses: fraternity behavior, college pranks, a few bad apples, nothing to see here.
posted by RETARDO MONTALBAN @ 6:25 PM
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