Graham and Lieberman Try To Block New Abuse Photos

May. 11- Civil libertarians are condemning a call by two influential U.S. senators for the White House to block the impending release of photographs showing detainees being abused by U.S. military personnel at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and at other U.S. detention facilities in the Middle East and elsewhere.

The plea to intervene to stop the expected May 28 release of the photos came in a letter to President Barack Obama from Senators Joseph Lieberman and Lindsey Graham.

"The release of these old photographs of past behavior that has now been clearly prohibited will serve no public good, but will empower al Qaeda propaganda operations, hurt our country's image, and endanger our men and women in uniform," the Senators wrote.

Release of the photos is expected in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

"We urge you in the strongest possible terms to fight the release of these old pictures of detainees in the war on terror, including appealing the decision of the Second Circuit in the ACLU lawsuit to the Supreme Court and pursuing all legal options to prevent the public disclosure of these pictures," the senators wrote.

Their letter said, "We know that many terrorists captured in Iraq have told American interrogators that one of the reasons they decided to join the violent jihadist war against America was what they saw on al Qaeda videos of abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib."

As a result of the ensuing actions by Congress, "America's soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines have made great progress in improving detention and interrogation procedures," they wrote.

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Civil libertarians were virtually unanimous in their opposition to withholding the photographs.

Gabor Rona, international legal director of Human Rights First, told IPS, "Sen. Lieberman and Graham's claims might carry more weight had the U.S. government been consistently honest about the mistreatment it authorised."

"But as long as the American people are kept in the dark about what crimes were committed in their name, they cannot intelligently exercise their democratic right and obligation to call for corrective measures," he said.

Rona added, "To elevate fear of al Qaeda's reactions over faith in our democratic ideals and structures is unfortunate and counterproductive."

Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild, told IPS, "The more evidence that emerges to document the Bush policy of torture and abuse, the more likely that investigations and prosecutions will take place."


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