Court Tells Military to Release Abu Ghraib Photos

In a story that did not make it into your newspapers today--not even the liberal press--a US court ordered the military to release previosuly unseen photos and videos from Abu Ghraib. The government has been trying to keep this material from the US public ever since they came to light. We got to see some of them, but the most disturbing pictures were kept out of the media.

It's reported by respected journalist Seymour Hersh that the material show the rape of a young boy by US soldiers, as well as other brutal acts of sexual and physical torture...

Al-Jazeera reports:

Pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released despite government claims that they could damage America's image, a US federal judge has ruled.

US District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein on Thursday said "terrorists" in Iraq and Afghanistan have proved they "do not need pretexts for their barbarism".

The government will appeal this ruling, so don't expect to see the photos soon.

What purpose could publishing this material serve? I believe that we must see the actions that our government commits in our name. This relates to televising capital punishment executions as much as it does to showing pictures of our dead soldiers'coffins and the civilian deaths that result from aerial bombing.

If the government can't deal with the consequences of the actions that its leaders make, then they should not do them. If these photos are published, then perhaps these decision-makers will work harder at making sure that these results do not happen. Otherwise, there is no accountability--just faceless victim and victimizer which adds further to the irreality of this war.