Stop censoring torture photos, United States judge rules

This video from the USA says about itself:

Should Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld & CIA Officials Be Tried for Torture? War Crimes Case Filed in Germany

19 December 2014

A human rights group in Berlin, Germany, has filed a criminal complaint against the architects of the George W. Bush administration’s torture program. The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights has accused former Bush administration officials, including CIA Director George Tenet and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, of war crimes, and called for an immediate investigation by a German prosecutor.

The move follows the release of a Senate report on CIA torture which includes the case of a German citizen, Khalid El-Masri, who was captured by CIA agents in 2004 due to mistaken identity and tortured at a secret prison in Afghanistan. So far, no one involved in the CIA torture program has been charged with a crime — except the whistleblower John Kiriakou, who exposed it. We speak to Michael Ratner, president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights and chairman of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, and longtime defense attorney Martin Garbus.

Watch all Democracy Now! reports on the U.S. torture program over the past decade here.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

US: Iraq prison abuse photos must be seen, judge rules

Monday 23rd March 2015

FEDERAL Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled on Friday evening that the US government must release photographs showing abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Judge Hellerstein’s ruling gave the government, which has fought the case for more than a decade, two months to decide whether to appeal.

The American Civil Liberties Union has been seeking to make the pictures public, saying that the pictures “are manifestly important to the ongoing national debate.”

It is unclear how many photographs exist. The government says it has 29 relevant pictures from at least seven different sites but is believed to hold hundreds or thousands more.

This video from the USA says about itself:

10 Years After Abu Ghraib, Ex-Prisoners Seek Justice in Torture Lawsuit Against US Contractor CACI

5 May 2014

Ten years ago, the shocking photos of U.S. military personnel humiliating and torturing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib sparked global outcry as well as national hearings, investigations and finger pointing. But many at the center of the Abu Ghraib abuse have never faced a day in court.

An attempt to hold the U.S. contractor CACI International accountable could result in the torture victims being held liable for legal fees. In September, a federal court ordered four Iraqis who were imprisoned at Abu Ghraib to pay CACI nearly $14,000 after unsuccessfully suing the company for their torture.

In dismissing the initial lawsuit, the judge in the case did not directly address CACI‘s role in the abuse, instead citing a U.S. Supreme Court decision restricting lawsuits against corporations for abuses on foreign soil.

A federal judge ordered the Pentagon Friday to make public an estimated 2,100 photographs depicting torture of prisoners at US military facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, or to file an individualized certification for each photo to support claims that their release will directly threaten the lives of US military personnel: here.