In the case related to the secrecy of 2,100 photos of prisoner abuse by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon flat out ignored the judge’s order to provide legal justifications on a case-by-case basis for the decade-old lawsuit.
Instead, the Pentagon is insisting that ISIS could conceivably use the photos to “incite” against the US, and that the photos “could be used to increase anti-American sentiment.”
The judge hasn’t responded to the filing, but since the Pentagon did the exact opposite of what he ordered them to do, providing a blanket excuse instead of individualized justifications, it’s hard to imagine he’ll react positively.
The ACLU has sought the release of the photos since 2004, and has been resisted by Presidents Bush and Obama. Congress made a law supporting their secrecy in 2009, but Judge Hellerstein said it couldn’t be used on such a large scale.
