Department of Defense to Identify Origins of Public Images of Abuse and Release Additional Photographs
NEW YORK -- The American
Civil Liberties Union today announced that the Department of Defense has
withdrawn its appeal of a district court order compelling it to turn over images
depicting detainee abuse by U.S. forces at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The
Defense Department will identify which public images come from the contested
trove and release any additional images in its possession.
"A picture is
worth a thousand words, but we have yet to hear one word of acknowledgment from
Secretary Rumsfeld and other top officials that their policies and actions were
responsible for the torture and abuse seen in these notorious photos," said
Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "The ACLU will press on with
its lawsuit to hold high-level officials accountable for creating policies that
resulted in the abuse of detainees. If the American government wants to restore
faith in our commitment to human rights, we must hold high-ranking officials
accountable for their actions."
Today's developments mean that an earlier
district court decision concerning the photographs will stand. That decision,
written by Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, held that "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 whose failures in exercising supervision
may make them culpable along with the soldiers who were court-martialed for
perpetrating the wrongs."
At issue are 74 photographs and three videotapes
depicting detainee abuse, provided by Sergeant Joseph Darby to the Army's
Criminal Investigation Command, many of which were recently released on the
newsmagazine Web site Salon.com. In a stipulation filed with the Court of
Appeals, the government agreed to authenticate and identify images on the Salon
Web site that are among the images it has withheld. Any of the 74 photographs
and three videotapes that have not been published on the Salon Web site will be
released to the ACLU (with individually identifying details deleted) within a
week of the court's formal dismissal of the appeal.
The government has not
officially informed the ACLU as to how many images in its possession have not
been published on Salon.com, but they are believed to be few in number. The ACLU
has not seen these images.
Attorneys for the government had argued that
turning over visual evidence of abuse would violate the United States'
obligations under the Geneva Conventions, but the ACLU, supported by experts in
international law, said that obscuring the faces and identifiable features of
the detainees would address any potential privacy concerns.
Recognizing the
importance of these images for shedding light on command failures that led to
the abuse, the district court agreed with the ACLU, but the government objected
and appealed the decision. In the stipulation submitted to the court today, the
government withdrew its objections and acknowledged that it is bound by the
district court's ruling ordering the release of the images.
The ACLU said
the government's strenuous efforts to resist the ACLU's lawsuit seeking release
of the images may ultimately have led to many of the images being leaked --
reportedly by members of the military - to Salon and to the Australian
Broadcasting System, among others.
"The government's attempts to shield
evidence of its own misconduct from public scrutiny ultimately proved to be
futile," said Amrit Singh, an attorney with the ACLU. "These images speak
volumes about the responsibility borne by high-ranking officials for the
widespread abuse of detainees held in United States custody abroad."
The
photographs to be released by the Defense Department come in response to a
Freedom of Information Act request filed by the ACLU, the Center for
Constitutional Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense
and Veterans for Peace. The New York Civil Liberties Union is co-counsel in the
case.
Additional documents continue to be turned over by the government in
adherence to an expedited schedule set by Judge Hellerstein of the U.S. District
Court for the Southern District of New York. Portions of the documents are
redacted and the ACLU continues to aggressively push for the release of much of
the withheld information.
To date, more than 90,000 pages of government
documents have been released in response to the ACLU's Freedom of Information
Act lawsuit. The ACLU has been posting these documents online at www.aclu.org/torturefoia. The
documents reveal that harsh interrogation techniques were used indiscriminately
in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, and ultimately led to cases of abuse
and torture.
In March 2005, the ACLU and Human Rights First filed a lawsuit
charging Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top officials with direct
responsibility for the torture and abuse of detainees. Many of the claims in the
Rumsfeld lawsuit were based on information disclosed through the ACLU's FOIA
litigation. Further information about the case, Ali v. Rumsfeld, is online at: www.aclu.org/rumsfeld
The stipulation relating to the Defense Department's withdrawal of its appeal is online at: www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/24786lgl20060328.html