Bush Stops New Abu Ghraib Photos

By Anthony Levensalor

Friday, July 22, 2005 at 03:07 PM

When their tactic of trying to delay in order to redact the faces of the tortured ran out, the Bush administration filed a new motion to oppose the release of the photos based on an entirely new argument.

Yet another example of our commander-and-thief taking up the mantle for people like Pol-Pot and the now-deposed Saddam Hussein.

At first, the Bush Administration said they needed time to release the photos, because they had to blur out all the faces of the men, women, and children in the pictures.

Now, with the deadline for that redaction expiring, the Bush administration has filed yet another motion, to completely exclude the photos under an exemption of the FOIA to protect individuals.

It's horseshit, of course. You can read the Center for Constitutional Right's article on it here.

Let's be realistic, here. The only person Bush is really trying to protect is himself, and his ass is most definitely right next to sling-time at this point. 100 new photos, 4 new videos, all depicting the torture of suspects at Abu Ghraib?

That would damage the Bush administration more, bring the scandal back into the stream, and really fuck up a whole bunch of things for Bushie. Unfortunately, it would also cover for the Rove mess people have begun dubbing "TreasonGate". My intolerance for all the labeling of everything every politician does being called "whateverGate" notwithstanding, the Rove story is an important one, partially eclipsed by the Nomination of Roberts to the SCOTUS and now by this Abu Ghraib mess.

All are important of course.

Anyway, back to the story at hand. The Bush administration probably realizes that these photos and videos will likely incite more insurgency, and will allow for easier recruitment by Al Qaeda. Personally, I think we've given them enough help in recruiting, but the American people need to know what is being done by the government in the name of America.

On the recruitment angle for Al Qaeda, I see it like this: It's not Al Qaeda that's having trouble recruiting. Why is that so? Not us, of course. Couldn't be us, not America. We haven't done anything but virtually declare war on Islam, invade a couple of countries, fuck it all up, kill a bunch of civilians, you know, little stuff.

Look for these photos to be a touchy issue in the coming weeks, and look for them to be leaked very shortly regardless of the legal motions filed. Why would they be leaked? Two reasons I can see.

1.) Not everone in the government is evil.
2.) In the end, the Bush administration wants, even needs, Al Qaeda and child organizations to exist and prosper. They need them so that they can keep enacting new provisions, keep using US-created terror as an excuse to keep fighting terror.

Meanwhile, the people are left to rot, mostly because they don't care enough to force the government into a position where it has to be accountable to the people, rather than the other way around. ~A!