ACLU's Amrit Singh's justification for release of photos

ACLU’s Amrit Singh’s justification for release of photos

May 15, 2009 by mattie14

May 14, 2009

This is what Amrit Singh, counsel in ACLU v. Dep’t of Defense lawsuit wrote in her March 8, 2009 Huffington Post entry as the primary supporting argument for why more torture photos should be released.

Can anyone find in her words the justification for putting American servicemembers’ lives at risk? Or find evidence that she ever even considered it?

SINGH: The public value of these images is considerable. As visual records, they convey what words could not possibly communicate. As evidence of abuse at locations other than Abu Ghraib, they undermine the Bush administration’s claim that abuse was aberrational. The disclosure of these images is critical to help the public understand the scope and scale of prisoner abuse as well as the extent to which such abuse was caused by policy decisions. Disclosure is also crucial for assessing official responsibility for the abuse.

This is a generic legal argument that has no personality or understanding of the propaganda nature of the photos and what their release would mean to actual human beings – American human beings in a time of war. She has variably said they are essential, important and considerable – all three very different. They are either necessary or not.

There is not a single word as to who would directly benefit from their release – just the nebulous “public” – the majority of whom said they do not want to see an investigation, even though they say what was done was torture and unacceptable. “The public” has thought it through and concluded that the consequences are unacceptable.

Undermining the previous Administration’s past claim is not worth the present and potential risk to American servicemen and women.

The disclosure of the images is not critical to anyone or anything – including the assessment of official responsibility. And present decisions are not dictated by policies that were in place when the photos were taken.

And here is why Ms Singh believes barry should do it. She, a lawyer, actually believes barry’s claim of transparency, despite the mounds of evidence to the contrary during his campaign and in his first 100 days.

SINGH: Indeed, withholding the prisoner abuse images would seriously undermine President Obama’s recent directives on government openness. One of those directives expressly prohibits the government from “keep[ing] information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears.”

She is equating the release of pure propaganda that would lead – with 100% certainty – to the torture and harm of Americans with “embarrassment” and “speculative or abstract fears”. Suit her up in a uniform and put her at the front of the line and then ask her if it is an “speculative” or “abstract” fear.

It seems Ms Singh doesn’t fully grasp that the US is at war and that what she is demanding would directly aid the enemy. Or that there is true meaning behind the phrase “in the interest of National security”, which in this case would be the security of the Nation’s citizens aka “the public”. Including the military, the innocents living their lives like those in the twin towers and Americans traveling abroad like those in Mumbai where any old American served their purpose.

Ms Singh correctly asserts that “Congress enacted FOIA precisely to ensure government accountability”. But she doesn’t prove the causality because none exists. The release of more photos is not going to affect in any way the previous Administration’s accountability. The first act of torture was wrong. Period. End of story. Releasing 1 or 1000 more photos is not going to make the first act any more or less heinous.

The Freedom of Information Act was meant to empower The American People.

In this case, the power would be placed directly in the hands of the enemy and no where in her argument does Ms Singh acknowledge this.

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To the ACLU re: release of torture photos
POTUS re: release of torture photos (video + text)