By Samuel Miller
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America and Oceania
WASHINGTON, D.C., United States of America — Last Friday, the Pentagon released nearly 200 photographs related to its investigation of alleged abuse of detainees held by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the military is continuing to block the disclosure of about 1,800 other photos from the same criminal investigations, saying that their release would endanger American service members serving abroad.
Taken more than a decade ago during the Bush administration, the photographs consist largely of close-up views of scrapes and bruises on detainees’ bodies.
The photos released Friday show close ups of arms, legs, feet, backs and heads, many with visible injuries and rulers or coins held up next to them for comparison. A few photos where faces would be visible have the faces blacked; furthermore, a few full-body photos show detainees kneeling or with their hands behind their backs.
The photographs were tied to U.S. military investigations that looked into reports of alleged abuse. Of the 56 allegations tied to the photographs, subsequent investigations substantiated the claims in 14 of the cases, which resulted in disciplinary action against 65 service-members, the Defense Department said in a prepared statement.
In 2003, the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the entire cache of photos. The organization sued in 2004 after the gruesome photos of Abu Ghraib prison leaked to the media. In 2009, the Obama administration promised to release the photos, but Congress passed a law that allowed them to remain classified if the Defense secretary certified their release would jeopardize national security.
The American Civil Liberties Union hailed the release of the photos, but said the decision to hold back the remaining 1,800 images could mislead the public about the true scope of what happened.
“The disclosure of these photos is long overdue, but the photos released today are almost certainly the most innocuous of the 2,000 that were being withheld,” ACLU said in a statement released Friday. “From the nearly 6,000 reports, investigations, emails, and other documents the government has been forced to release to us in the course of this litigation, we have found more than 100 documents that either reference photos related to cases of abuse or actually contain photos that were redacted before they got to us.”
In one example, identified as an U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (‘CID’) case from 2004, black and white photographs depict a detainee holding a pen to his shin just under an area that appears slightly discolored. CID concluded there was not enough evidence to determine whether the detainee, whose name was redacted, had been abused by U.S. or coalition forces.
Investigators did, however, determine the detainee was likely abused by Iraqi Civil Defense troops.
For more information, please see:
AllGov – Pentagon Blocks Release of 1,800 Detainee Abuse Photos, Lets Out 198 – 6 February 2016
CNN – Pentagon releases 198 photos of detainees – 5 February 2016
NY Times – Pentagon Releases Small Portion of Photos From Detainee Abuse Cases – 5 February 2016
The Hill – Pentagon releases 198 photos of alleged detainee abuse – 5 February 2016
The Intercept – PENTAGON RELEASES PHOTOS OF DETAINEE ABUSE IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN – 5 February 2016
