President Barack Obama’s decision to keep secret the photos documenting harsh interrogation techniques of terror suspects is understandable but wrong.
Obama is correct when he says the photos would stoke anger against our troops and citizens, hurt the country’s credibility abroad and become recruitment propaganda for terrorists. But the recent partial release of memos detailing the Bush administration’s efforts to justify and define the parameters of the “enhanced interrogations” has sparked an unfinished debate.
Releasing documents and photos that detail the extent of the abusive techniques — and whether or not American lives were actually saved because of them — is needed to help our nation fully understand what took place and whether it should ever be repeated. (We would argue techniques such as waterboarding are torture and shouldn’t be repeated. But until we learn more about others, and whether or not they were successful, it’s hard to know.)
Obama initially had agreed to release the photos May 28. He did so after a federal judge and an appeals court ruled that the American Civil Liberties Union should be granted its request for the documents related to events at Abu Ghraib and other prisons. The photos were taken by soldiers, but also investigators documenting allegations of abuse.
Several generals voiced their fears with the president that release of the photos could create a deadly reaction against our troops and further weaken an already fragile situation in Afghanistan.
But anti-American sentiment will continue even if the photos are kept secret. And keeping them secret may even further contribute to such anger, as without proof of what actually happened, exaggerated abuses might be assumed.
The judges who have reviewed the case already have dismissed the government’s argument that release of the photos would be dangerous.
The ACLU agreed with the Pentagon that identities of prisoners and guards would be blocked.
ACLU attorneys rightly argue that Obama’s violation of the Freedom of Information Act in not releasing the photos is especially troubling in that one of the key functions of the act is to hold government accountable and reveal abuse. Photos of atrocities, such as the extermination camps in Nazi Germany and the “tiger cages” of Vietnam, are a grisly part of the human record, but such images play a necessary role in shaping our understanding and response to abuse.
The search for truth cannot be held hostage by a fear of reprisal.
Obama said that releasing the photos would “have a chilling effect on future investigations of detainee abuse.” But without disclosure of this information, we would lack an important tool in righting any wrongs and preventing future violations.
The photos and other materials that detail what was done — and what was learned — should be released in a manner that doesn’t expose sensitive security information to allow for a full review of the interrogation program.
