Message #152746

[Misty Ezelle]

"We are disappointed by this ruling," said ACLU lawyer Amrit Singh. "It further delays the disclosure of photographs that are critical to informing the debate about the treatment of U.S. prisoners."

Yusill Scribner, a spokeswoman for government lawyers in Manhattan, said the government had no comment.

In 2006, U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in Manhattan had ordered the release of the pictures once identifying facial features were removed.

The color photographs were taken by service members in Iraq and Afghanistan. U.S. law allows restrictions when images could reasonably be expected to endanger someone's life or safety.

Last September, the appeals court agreed with Hellerstein, saying there needed to be specific threats for the pictures to be blocked.

"It is plainly insufficient to claim that releasing documents could reasonably be expected to endanger some unspecified member of a group so vast as to encompass all United States troops, coalition forces and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan," the appeals court said.

The appeals court noted at the time that the government had earlier used the same argument to try to prevent the release of 87 photographs and other images of detainees at detention facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, including at Abu Ghraib.

International outrage resulted from images in the Iraqi prison showing physical abuse and sexual humiliation of inmates, including a picture of a naked, hooded prisoner on a box with wires fastened to his hands and genitals.

After those pictures were released over the Internet, the government dropped its appeal.

The appeals court noted in its September ruling that the U.S. championed the release of photographs after World War II that depicted emaciated prisoners, corpses of prisoners and powerless and subjugated detainees. The government believed wide dissemination of the pictures could help hold perpetrators accountable, it said.

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Associated Press Writer Devlin Barrett in Washington contributed to this story.