U.S. agrees to issue Abu Ghraib images

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/28/abu.ghraib/

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Defense Department has withdrawn its appeal challenging a district court order requiring it to turn over to civil rights groups 74 photographs and three videotapes depicting images of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, officials said Tuesday.

The American Civil Liberties Union and other rights groups filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the department in October 2003, before the release of the first images from the prison nearly seven months later, looking for documents related to abuse of detainees held in U.S. custody abroad.

That lawsuit has resulted in the release of more than 90,000 pages of government documents on issues of detainee treatment in Iraq, Afghanistan, and at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The decision to abandon the appeal means that a September 2005 ruling by Judge Alvin Hellerstein in the Southern District of New York ordering the military to turn over the photographs and videotapes will stand.

How generous and unusual of the BA.