Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced last week that he will issue a decree to block the release of 44 photos that are said to depict U.S. troops abusing foreign troops in custody.
The photos, which are a part of the more than year-long investigation into interrogation techniques, were first referenced in a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
After such a long battle, Congress gave the sole power to block the photos from leaking to the Obama administration last month. The administration did exactly that.
In a statement released by the administration, Secretary Gates said that all photos of people captured or detained overseas in military operations between Sept. 11, 2001 and Jan. 22, 2009 are to be covered. The reason given is that leakage of said photos may “endanger the lives of U.S. soldiers abroad.”
The ACLU spoke out saying that the administration’s move “makes a mockery,” of the President’s campaign promise of greater transparency and accountability.
Cases such as this seem to have a new found place in the American justice system, as it is not the first of its kind. Just last year, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and a number of other U.S. officials were sued on the basis of unjust interrogation techniques during incarceration.
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