Hope and Fail

Flip-flopping on detainee photos

Citing national security concerns, President Obama has reversed his decision to release photos of alleged detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Three weeks after telling a federal judge that the Justice Department would release photos of alleged detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan to the ACLU, the president has completely reversed his decision.

From ABC News:

President Obama defended his decision to fight the release of photos showing detainee abuse Wednesday afternoon, saying it would only put American troops in harms way and create a backlash against Americans.

“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,” the president said before departing on his trip to Arizona. “Moreover, I fear the publication of these photos may only have a chilling effect on future investigations of detainee abuse.”

The move is a complete 180. In a letter from the Justice Department to a federal judge on April 23, the Obama administration announced that the Pentagon would turn over 44 photographs showing detainee abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq during the Bush administration.

… Last Friday, President Obama met with White House counsel Greg Craig and other members of the White House counsel team in the Oval Office and told them that he had second thoughts about the decision to hand over photographs of detainee abuse to the ACLU.

They discussed possible counterarguments that they believed the Bush legal team hadn’t tried — namely, the argument that releasing the photographs constitute a national security risk.

A White House official said that the president “believes that the national security implications of such a release have not been fully presented to the court.”

It’s a good reversal, but it’s not going to make the left and the ACLU happy.

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