Senate Torture Report Photos Could Be Released: American Troops, Corpse Posing, And Forced Sodomy

The Senate Torture report continues to make waves throughout the country, as a federal judge could decide the fate of hundreds, if not thousands, of photos depicting American troops engaged in allegedly torturous acts with corpses and detainees.

The Daily Beast’s Noah Shachtman reports that “photos show American troops posing with corpses; others depict U.S. forces holding guns to people’s heads or simulating forced sodomization.”

The release of these photos would largely depend on Judge Alvin Hellerstein and President Obama’s willingness to fight the case, Shachtman notes.

Hellerstein is a senior judge of the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York. He was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1998.

The president’s track record with releasing potentially controversial photos doesn’t provide much hope for the American Civil Liberties Union, plaintiffs in the case, as he previously refused to release the death photos of Osama bin Laden.

There are 21 specific Senate Torture report photos at stake, but their release could open the floodgates for the rest. The administration has until the end-of-day Friday to submit evidence for why it believes the photos should remain concealed.

These 21 photos are from only one case. There are 203 pending investigations.

“We have a strong argument that the government hasn’t met its burden under the PNSDA, and the principles underlying the Freedom of Information Act favor the release of the photos,” said Jameel Jaffer of the ACLU. “To accept the government’s argument, that information about government misconduct should be suppressed whenever there is some risk that someone, somewhere in the world will be upset by it, is a formula for the suppression of all sorts of information that are critical to our democracy.”

President Obama had a chance to release the photos in 2009, but held back “at the urging of his top commander in Iraq, who worried the graphic images could generate a backlash against U.S. troops,” Shachtman notes.

“The publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals,” Obama said in 2009. “In fact, the most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.”

What do you think about releasing the Senate torture report photos, readers? Would it further inflame the world against the United States, endanger American troops abroad, or both? And do you think the White House should fight against it? Sound off in our comments section.

[Image via Mykhaylo Palinchak / Shutterstock.com]