The Photo Release

Pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released despite government claims that they could damage America's image, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan have proven they "do not need pretexts for their barbarism."

The American Civil Liberties Union sought the release of 87 photographs and four videotapes as part of an October 2003 lawsuit demanding information on the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody and the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture. The ACLU contends that prisoner abuse is systemic.

Brutal images of the abuse at the prison have already been widely distributed, but the lawsuit covers additional photos not yet seen by the public.

The photos of American barbarism must be released according to Judge Hellerstein. There were many reasons that America saught to prevent the release of these photos: to dimish the perception of an unjust Invader; to diminish the bad PR domestically; to diminish the growing incidences of America's negligence of Geneva Conventions through the war on Terror.

America didn't want the photos released because they threatened the American Image, which is more important to the marketing of America than the actual actions of the State. This is the great PR, Marketing, Consumerist justification for preventing the world from knowing what happened. Pretty incredible.

And Judge Hellerstein ruled that America's desires to have an untainted image cannot be undermined by America's piss-poor actions. That, in fact, simply by this behaviour your image is tainted- not by pretending nobody can see it.

To America, it's the exposure we fear. To the world, this is simply part of... America.