Obama scared to publish new torture photos, prefers to avoid Pentagon’s anger

US President Obama believes it is a bad time now to publish the photographs of tortures, which were used in the prisons of Iraq and Afghanistan under the previous administration of the United States.

Photo: Obama scared to publish new torture photos, prefers to avoid Pentagon’s anger

Barack Obama said that the publication of new photos depicting the inhuman treatment of Afghani and Iraqi detainees would not become a sensation because the notorious Abu Ghraib pictures were still fresh in everyone’s memory. The new pictures, the president added, could only trigger more attacks against the US contingent in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A court ordered the Pentagon to expose hundreds of photographs showing US servicemen abusing prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq. The photos were used in the investigation of over 60 criminal cases from 2001 to 2006, Interfax reports.

Obama decided to refuse from the use of tortures in the ongoing struggle against international terrorism during the first month of his stay in the office. He signed the law to ban tortures as a method of interrogation with terrorist suspects.

Obama upheld the decision to publish the adequate secret documents, which the US Justice Department signed under the Bush’s administration, although he did not consider it necessary to expose the pictures. He said that he had entrusted the lawyers of his administration to appeal against the court ruling.

The US president made such a decision after the talks with Gen. Ray Odierno, the commander of US troops in Iraq.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said that the publication of the new pictures could coincide with the aggravation of the situation in Afghanistan, as battles become especially fierce there in spring. US servicemen in Afghanistan will have to deal with a very complicated environment in the war-torn country anyway, Itar-Tass reports.

The American Civil Liberties Union stated that the decision to block the publication of the new photographs contradicted to Obama’s promises to keep transparency and accountability.

“The decision to suppress the photos is profoundly inconsistent with the promise of transparency that President Obama has made time after time," The Associated Press quoted ACLU lawyer Jameel Jaffer as saying.