March 21, 2015

Judge says government has to release prisoner torture photos

Politico - A federal judge has ordered the release of about 2,000 photos depicting the abuse of prisoners in U.S. military custody—images that President Barack Obama declared years ago should be kept from public view.

New York-based U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein said he told government lawyers last month that he viewed a certification then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed in 2012 as not legally adequate to withhold the photos. The judge called the finding "deficient because it was not sufficiently individualized and it did not establish the Secretary's own basis for concluding that disclosure would endanger Americans."

In an order released Friday, Hellerstein suggested the administration was stalling in the lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups seeking to expose more information about abusive treatment of prisoners in the custody of the U.S. military in places like Afghanistan and Iraq.

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