I figure if I am going to keep some sort of readership here; that I should try to post at least one blog posting a day. Sorry for the lapse in posts. I just haven’t been much in the mood. Plus, I was playing a little Ham Radio, and then I discovered my rig has an issue, one that I thought was fixed, and it turns out, either it didn’t fix the problem or the rig needs a tweaking. It sucks, but eh, such is life; I guess.
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It seems that President Obama has basically stood up to his base and decided that the photos that were taken during some of the prison abuse that went on in Afghanistan and Iraq, would not be released.
Jack Tapper at ABC NEWS has more:
President Obama defended his decision to fight the release of photos showing detainee abuse Wednesday afternoon, saying it would only put American troops in harms way and create a backlash against Americans.
“The most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger,” the president said before departing on his trip to Arizona. “Moreover, I fear the publication of these photos may only have a chilling effect on future investigations of detainee abuse.”
The move is a complete 180. In a letter from the Justice Department to a federal judge on April 23, the Obama administration announced that the Pentagon would turn over 44 photographs showing detainee abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq during the Bush administration.
But in a letter sent this afternoon to the District Court Judge in the case, Alvin Hellerstein of the US District Court in the Southern District of New York, acting US Attorney Lev Dassin, writes that while his previous April 23 letter informed the court that the Obama administration had decided not to seek certiorari of the Second Circuit Court’s ruling to force the release of the photographs, his office had “been informed today that, upon further reflection at the highest levels of Government, the Government has decided to pursue further options regarding that decision, including but not limited to the option of seeking certiorari.”
The deadline for that decision is June 9.
The photographs are part of a 2003 Freedom of Information Act request by the ACLU for all information relating to the treatment of detainees — the same battle that led to President Obama’s decision to release memos from the Bush Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel providing legal justifications for brutal interrogation methods, many of which the International Committee of the Red Cross calls torture.
Of course there are some on the liberal left or see this as a direct betrayal of the promises made by the President during his campaign. Chris over at “The Fix” reports:
President Barack Obama’s reversal on the release of detainee photos has angered the liberal left, a perceived poke in the eye that has left some questioning Obama’s commitment to progressive policies.
In brief remarks before heading to Arizona to deliver a commencement speech at Arizona State University, Obama argued that “the publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals” and, in fact, the most likely effect would be “to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.”
Liberals — particularly in the blogosphere — immediately expressed their displeasure with the decision.
“Since he’s been inaugurated, Barack Obama has demonstrated a remarkable desire to keep evidence of Bush crimes generally, and Bush’s torture regime specifically, concealed,” said Jane Hamsher, the founder of the Fire Dog Lake blog in an email exchange with the Fix. “Some of his supporters won’t care. But others believe he is betraying promises he made on the campaign trail about transparency, and there is a growing sense that he is becoming complicit in the crimes he is attempting desperately to shield from public scrutiny.”
On several liberal blogs, the reaction was similar.
Talking Points Memo is leading its site with the headline “Obama Admin Falls Back On Bushism: Abuse Pics’ Release Would Hurt Troops”.
On Daily Kos, Joan McCarter, a contributing editor to the site, described the move as “an unwelcome and probably futile policy reversal” by Obama; the post had already drawn more than 500 comments less than two hours since it was posted.
And Digby, another prominent liberal blogger, called White House press secretary Robert Gibbs’ explanation of why the Administration is reversing position as rising to “Fleischeresque levels of fatuousness”.
To be clear: it’s not immediately clear that liberals are abandoning the president in droves. Rather, as happens with almost every president, elements of the base are coming to grips with the idea that Obama may not be the liberal hero that people thought he was when he was first elected.
Of course, the greatest liberal organization of them all; the communist ran, funded, and supported ACLU is not happy about this either:
The Obama administration’s adoption of the stonewalling tactics and opaque policies of the Bush administration flies in the face of the president’s stated desire to restore the rule of law, to revive our moral standing in the world and to lead a transparent government. This decision is particularly disturbing given the Justice Department’s failure to initiate a criminal investigation of torture crimes under the Bush administration.
“It is true that these photos would be disturbing; the day we are no longer disturbed by such repugnant acts would be a sad one. In America, every fact and document gets known – whether now or years from now. And when these photos do see the light of day, the outrage will focus not only on the commission of torture by the Bush administration but on the Obama administration’s complicity in covering them up. Any outrage related to these photos should be due not to their release but to the very crimes depicted in them.
Of course, the ACLU does not care about the fact that this photos could cause grave danger to our Military officers serving in the war. Because they do not care about them! They hate the Military! All of the far left sees the Military as an extention of the empire of America, which all far left Communists hate with a passion.
Ed Morrissey weighs in on the reason why President Obama did this huge reversal:
What changed? The decision angered the military, which recalled the hysterics over the Abu Ghraib photos. Even Obama’s allies on the decision admitted that the release would damage security and put American troops in more danger, including John Kerry, who said they made great propaganda for our terrorist enemies. With the CIA already battling the White House after the release of the OLC memos, the last thing Obama needed was a war with the Pentagon.
Ed’s right on the money there. Because if you lose your intellegence agency and you lose your Military; you may as well hang it up as President. Obama knew this, the President is not stupid. The President will score some political capital with the right and with the independents, but he will lose it badly with the far left. I do not know, at this point, if it will cost him the election or not in 2012. But the short term will be a little rough. I expect to see a little push back from the far left. As to whether or not it will have any serious impact or not, remains to be seen.
I would suppose that the ACLU will take this to the SCOTUS, it will be quite interesting to see how this plays out and if the court agrees with Obama or not.