Open Thread

April 24th, 2009 11:15 AM

For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: Obama Administration to Release Detainee Abuse Photos to ACLU!

In a letter from the Justice Department to a federal judge yesterday, the Obama administration announced that the Pentagon would turn over to the American Civil Liberties Union 44 photographs showing detainee abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq during the Bush administration...[Dr. Mark M. Lowenthal, former Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production] said the president's moves in the last week have left many in the CIA dispirited, based on "the undercurrent I've been getting from colleagues still in the building, or colleagues who have left not that long ago." "We ask these people to do extremely dangerous things, things they've been ordered to do by legal authorities, with the understanding that they will get top cover if something goes wrong," Lowenthal says. "They don't believe they have that cover anymore." Releasing the photographs "will make it much worse," he said.

Thoughts?