’)
As Frank Rich notes in Sunday’s New York Times, it’s futile for the president to object to the release of torture photos, as they are likely to be leaked, if they haven’t been already. Channel SBS in Australia obtained photos as early as 2006.
One picture showed a prisoner hung up upside down while another showed a naked man smeared in excrement standing in a corridor with a guard standing menacingly in front of him. Another prisoner is handcuffed to the window frame of his cell with underpants pulled over his head.
Others yet to be released reportedly show military guards threatening to sexually assault a detainee with a broomstick and hooded prisoners on transport planes with Playboy magazines opened to pictures of nude women on their laps.
Yes, photos like these are extremely disturbing. But, as Anthony Romero of the ACLU says, “Only by looking squarely in the mirror, acknowledging the crimes of the past and achieving accountability can we move forward and ensure that these atrocities are not repeated.”
As Louis Brandeis said in Other People’s Money and How the Bankers Use It, “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.”
