“The interest at stake arises from pictures of flagrantly improper conduct by American soldiers – forcing prisoners under their charge to pose in a manner that compromised their humanity and dignity. As I stated at the time of the original argument, and as I reiterated previously in this decision, the pictures are the best evidence of what happened, better than words, which might fail to describe, or summaries, which might err in their attempt to generalize and abbreviate. Publication of the photographs is central to the purposes of FOIA because they initiate debate, not only about the improper and unlawful conduct of American soldiers, “rogue” soldiers, as they have been characterized, but also about other important questions as well – for
example, the command structure that failed to exercise discipline over the troops, and the persons
in that command structure whose failures in exercising supervision may make them culpable along with the soldiers who were court-martialed for perpetrating the wrongs; the poor training that did not create patterns of proper behavior and that failed to teach or distinguish between conduct that was proper and improper; the regulations and orders that governed the conduct of military forces
engaged in guarding prisoners; the treatment of prisoners in other areas and places of detention; and other related questions.

Suppression of information is the surest way to cause its significance to grow and persist. Clarity and openness are the best antidotes, either to dispel criticism if not merited or, if merited, to correct such errors as may be found. The fight to extend freedom has never been easy, and we
are once again challenged, in Iraq and Afghanistan, by terrorists who engage in violence to intimidate our will and to force us to retreat. Our struggle to prevail must be without sacrificing the transparency and accountability of government and military officials. These are the values FOIA was intended to advance, and they are at the very heart of the values for which we fight in Afghanistan and Iraq. There is a risk that the enemy will seize upon the publicity of the photographs and seek to use such publicity as a pretext for enlistments and violent acts. But the education and debate that such publicity will foster will strengthen our purpose and, by enabling
such deficiencies as may be perceived to be debated and corrected, show our strength as a vibrant and functioning democracy to be emulated.

In its most recent discussion of FOIA, the Supreme Court commented that “FOIA is often explained as a means for citizens to know what ‘their Government is up to.’ The sentiment is far from a convenient formalism. It defines a structural necessity in a real democracy.” Favish,
541 U.S. at 171-72. As President Bush said, we fight to spread freedom so the freedoms of Americans will be made more secure. It is in compliance with these principles, enunciated by
both the President and the highest court in the land, that I order the government to produce the photographs that I have determined are responsive and appropriately redacted.”

The photographs were only one of five subjects of the request for production of documents. In relation to portions earlier in the decision, the judge said at one point:

“Historians will evaluate, and legislators debate, how wise it is for a society to
give such regard to secrecy. The practice of secrecy, to compartmentalize knowledge to those having a clear need to know, makes it difficult to hold executives accountable and compromises
the basics of a free and open democratic society. It also creates a dangerous tendency to withhold
information from those outside the insular group, for fear of compromising the sources and integrity of intelligence. The consequences can be dire for, as noted in the 9/11 Commission Report, the strict need-to-know, proprietary approach to intelligence that has been employed by government agencies prevents the effective use of our vast storehouse of information. 9/11 Comm’n Rep. (2004), § 13.3, at 416-17 (“The biggest impediment to all-source analysis–to a
greater likelihood of connecting the dots–is the human or systemic resistance to sharing information.”). Identities of terrorists may be locked in the files of one agency and not given to
another, or reported, if at all, only at the very top of chains of command, denying real-time need to know by those at operating points. The insularity of information tends to cause a multiplicity of
intelligence-gathering agencies, each zealously protecting its own private sources in competition
with other agencies. See, e.g., Judith Miller, A New York Cop in Israel, Stepping a Bit on F.B.I. Toes, N.Y. Times, May 15, 2005, § 1, at 37 (discussing tensions between the New York Police
Department and the FBI arising from their separate intelligence-gathering endeavors abroad, in
turn resulting from the NYPD’s desire to have quick access, on an equal footing with federal agencies, to key counter-terrorism information).

“There was no more cogent critic of the penchant by government officials to over-classify information than the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and few with his competence and
experience. Senator Moynihan, reflecting on his experiences as Chairman of the Commission on
Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, among many other relevant
positions, commented at the conclusion of his book, Secrecy:

“[A] huge proportion of the government’s effort at classifying is futile anyway. Let [George F.] Kennan have the last word. In a letter of March 1997 he writes: “It is my conviction, based on some 70 years of experience, first as a government official
and then in the past 45 years as an historian, that the need by our government for secret intelligence about affairs elsewhere in the world has been vastly overrated.”…

“A case can be made…that secrecy is for losers. For people who don’t know how
important information really is. The Soviet Union realized this too late. Openness is now a singular, and singularly American, advantage. We put it in peril by poking along in the mode of an age now past. It is time to dismantle government secrecy, this most pervasive of Cold War-era regulations. It is time to begin building the
supports for the era of openness that is already upon us.”

I suggest that reading the decision (only the last dozen-or-so pages address the Darby photographs) will help us all to know what we’re talking about.

Thanks also to fellowservant for posting the link to the CNN item regarding the judge’s ambivalence. It’s not black and white; if it was, it wouldn’t have got to court in the first place.

tequilamockingbird

As for me, I’m already convinced that the photos are just “more of the same.” Now there have already abeen 12 major inquiries, 31 congressional hearings and 45 staff briefings on this issue – all without finding evidence of wrongdoing up the commmand chain, which ACLU is so anxious to prove.

We already know what terrible consequences have been wrought byeven false rumors of prisoner abuse – has the ACLU already forgotten how many people were killed over the koran-flushing calumny?

Have many times have you pissed on your cheetos?

Keep the Jihad strong steve.

LMFAO! Yeah, like the Arabs don’t know what happened.

This is what I would do if I was a terroist and I was given these “extra” DVD Abu Ghraib settings. Thinking in the shoe’s of the terroists is not something jsut anyone can up and claim they can do, you have to become a terroist psychologically, manifest their psychological strengths and weaknesses, and adopt their philosophical and political goals.

Loyal Jihadists, we have recently acquired a treasure from Allah. Allah has seen our mighty struggles against the Satan in Iraq, and against all non-believers present and future. Allah has seen, and he is approving of our courage and loyalty. The sign he gives us is strong, and should not be underestimated.

Look here, upon these pictures of the Great Satan in treating holy muslims in the stinking dungeons of apostates to shame and humiliation. The Americans are laughing at us! Those infidels, who have not the strength to even control their own media. This is indeed a sign, it is a sign from Allah, in our darkest days, that we are still stronger than the Great Satan. It is proof, holy writ.

We will win, since the Americans are so guilt ridden, that they will give us more pictures of their abuses! What do they expect, for us to forgive them and give them comfort and aid?! NOOOOOOOO, we have seen, indeed we have, their weakness, moral and culture. They seek to PLACATE US, with these pictures of shame, they wish to seek FORGIVENESS and the MERCY of Allah, but they will receive neither. For the infidels deserve ever lasting hell and torture, for they cannot resist, not when they can’t even stop their own ACLU. Not when the Americans can’t even control their own people.

What hope do the infidels have against us, WE WHO ARE UNITED IN JIHAD IN ALLAH’S NAME, we who will achieve everlasting serenity and rewards, WE WHO WILL TRIUMPH!!!

Abu, the youth who has seen so much death and destruction visited upon the mujahideen by the Great Satanic forces, he has recently been doubting the power of the Jihad. But now with this new proof of ALlah’s favor, he knows that he has been empowered with a destiny, the destiny to visit suffering upon the infidels. His fear of becoming a martyr in tomorrow’s suicide bombing, was a test, and Allah had seen how he was weakening. Now Allah had given him a sign, a gift, and now Abu knows that the Americans can be defeated, for the Americans do not have Allah on their side.

We are strong, and they are weak, we are worthy and they are decadent, we are united and they are fragmented. Tomorrow, Abu says in his mind, I will go and achieve martyrdom with the death of 500 little infidels at the school. May Allah have mercy on me for my weakness.

Thank Allah, for acting through the ACLU.

Boom.

Freedom is only for the ACLU and those who are socially acceptable like terroists, there is no freedom left for Americans.

It wouldn’t be so bad if freedom of information was really followed, but when freedom of information only applies for pro-Osama Bin Laden propaganda rather than pro-American pictures, then you have a slight problem of fascism.

You don’t see pro-American pictures, because most of them have been suppressed by the media. The military can’t get their money’s worth if they attempted to get the media to showcase pictures good for American morale. You couldn’t pay the MSM enough to do that. But you wouldn’t even need to pay the MSM to show Abu Ghraib pictures.

The MSM are ideologues, and so is the ACLU and stupid judges who don’t live in the same country as the rest of us lives in.