A federal judge today ordered the Defense Department to release 74 photos and three videos depicting prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib, some of which may have already been published worldwide.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the US District Court in Manhattan ordered the Defense Department to release photos provided by Sgt. Joseph Darby, some of which were leaked more than a year ago and set off the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.
The Defense Department had sought to suppress their release, saying publication of new images could incite more violence in Iraq.
Among Darby's pictures already published were one that outraged the world showing Pvt. Lynndie England with a naked prisoner on a leash.
England was sentenced to three years in jail for her part in the scandal. It is not known if this picture or other famed images are among the 74 being contested.
The written ruling came in response to a Freedom of Information Act suit filed in 2003 by civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, over treatment of US-held detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
The judge had ordered the release of the photos in June, but the Department of Defense appealed the decision, warning the judge in oral arguments that releasing the pictures could incite more violence among insurgents in Iraq.
But in a strongly worded ruling today, the judge noted that "the terrorists in Iraq do not need pretexts for their barbarism" and that America "does not surrender to blackmail and fear of blackmail is not a legally sufficient argument."
The judge said withholding the photos that show American soldiers forcing prisoners "to pose in a manner that compromised their humanity and dignity" would be contrary to the democratic freedoms that American troops were fighting for.
Agencies