Lieberman, Graham Seek To Block Torture Photos At All Costs

With the war supplemental under fire from some unlikely allies in the House, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) threatened Monday to use any means necessary to keep torture photos hidden.

Lieberman and Graham said in a forceful joint statement that they would attach their bill, which allows the Secretary of Defense to suppress any detainee interrogation photos for three years at a time, to every measure that comes before the Senate until it becomes law. The two senators did not rule out a filibuster, and they suggested that their move has the backing of the White House.

The full statement appears below:

"We strongly believe that the first responsibilities of government are the nation's security and the protection of those brave Americans who go into harm's way to defend it.

"The President has said that the release of the photos of detainees in US custody would 'put our troops and civilians serving our nation abroad in greater danger.' We agree with the Commander in Chief.

"We will employ all the legislative means available to us including opposing the supplemental war spending bill and attaching this amendment, which was unanimously adopted by the Senate, to every piece of legislation the Senate considers, to be sure the President has the authority he needs not to release these photos and any others that would jeopardize the safety and security of our troops.

"The release of the photos will serve as propaganda and recruiting tool for terrorists who seek to attack American citizens at home and abroad. We should strive to have as open a government as possible, but the behavior depicted in the photos has been prohibited and is being investigated. The photos do not depict anything that is not already known. Transparency, and in this case needless transparency, should not be paid for with the lives of American citizens, let alone the lives of our men and women in uniform fighting on our behalf in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

"Let it clearly be understood that without this legislation the photos in question are likely to be released. Such a release would be tantamount to a death sentence to some who are serving our nation in the most dangerous and difficult spots like Iraq and Afghanistan. It is this certain knowledge of these consequences of having the photos released that will cause us to vote against the supplemental and continue our push to turn our important amendment into law."

(h/t Glenn Thrush.)

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Comments

[rmwarnick]

Attach an anti-FOIA secrecy amendment to every bill? BRING IT ON!

[pjburke]

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture will sponsor a major religious public event on June 11 in front of the White House asking President Obama to create a Commission of Inquiry. Join religious leaders and people of faith from across the country to speak out powerfully to the need for a full accounting of U.S.-sponsored torture since 9/11.

http://www.nrcat.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=346

[justoverit333]

these two are like kissin cousins

[harmonikasavingsbonds]

"By Any Means Necessary?"

Sounds like we are in for one he ll of a hissyfit from these two.

[annie g]

I would like to know what "greater danger" our troops will be in by releasing these photos? Look at the danger they are in now?

"The photos do not depict anything that is not already known. Transparency, and in this case needless transparency, should not be paid for with the lives of American citizens, let alone the lives of our men and women in uniform fighting on our behalf in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. "

If these photos do not depict anything that is not already known then what is the problem? Are these two not aware that lives are being "paid for" by our troops in these wars? The problem I believe is that we would then know who the higher ups in the military were that condoned this behavior. Graham and Lieberman are using this as a political move simply because it was during the Bush/Cheney reign. It is a disgrace to use our military as pawns in political rhetoric.

Lieberman should have had his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee taken away from him.

[knerd]

Lindsey, Libermann:

The original photos have become iconic. It's really too late, guys. You can grab at cyberspace all you want and monitor the blogs like high school hall monitors.

We already did the damage and it is done.

[furey]

"The photos do not depict anything that is not already known."

Known by whom, Senators?

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2009/05/24/torture-and-911/

[Marcospinelli]

Then it's incumbent upon Obama to release them ASAP.

[KCFreedom]

Are these dim-wits in the photos or something?

[ObjectiveRealist]

"Just imagine if any other country did this. Imagine if a foreign government were accused of systematically torturing and otherwise brutally abusing detainees in its custody for years, and there was ample photographic evidence proving the extent and brutality of the abuse. Further imagine that the country's judiciary -- applying decades-old transparency laws -- ruled that the government was legally required to make that evidence public. But in response, that country's President demanded that those transparency laws be retroactively changed for no reason other than to explicitly empower him to keep the photographic evidence suppressed, and a compliant Congress then immediately passed a new law empowering the President to suppress that evidence. What kind of a country passes a law that has no purpose other than to empower its leader to suppress evidence of the torture it inflicted on people?"
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/06/01/photos/index.html

To the extent that the safety of our soldiers is anything other than a red herring, we ought to prosecute those who ordered whatever is portrayed in those pictures, or revoked standing orders prohibiting torture. If we help conceal evidence of crimes we become accomplices, and voluntarily "socialize" individuals' guilt just as Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson socialized their patrons' financial failures on us just last year. I am innocent of the Bush administration's torture program and willing to let *all* the evidence be published, and I know who to tell.
http://senate.gov
http://www.house.gov

[sviolette]

One could make the exact same argument about the dangers our troops face by not releasing these photos. Covering up a crime is the same as committing the crime.

[DASChicago]

It's call "Omission", yeap it's still a crime!

[DASChicago]

Sorry..."called:"

[We-Are-The-Ones]

I cannot imagine the horrors they are trying to hide.

These guys are cowards and pansies.

They are trying to pull the President in this when all he said was that he wanted to make more cogent arguments to the courts. He never said, suggested or inferred that he wanted the photos kept secret by legislation.

What is Graham and Lieberman trying to hide? And why so forcefully . . . by any means necessary? All they are doing is making the public want to see them more.

[sviolette]

They are trying to cover up rape and murder. Rape of young boys and women. Crushing another boy's testacles in front of his mother.

All are rumers from people that supposedly have seen the photos.

[indianabob]

That is actually not correct. The White House has actively supported this bill.

[longtimegone]

If Americans had not been forced to view the original release of photos from Abu Ghraib, most of them would still be firmly ensconced in a state of permanent denial about Americans' engaging in torture from which nothing would dislodge them. Americans need to know the truth; not just those of us who seek the truth, but even more, those who seek to deny or hide from it. I'm afraid nothing works for such people like photographic evidence.

[sviolette]

These photos are supposedly the worst of the worst. Sound familiar?

[naschkatze]

Jane Hamsher is reporting on FDL that the Lieberman/Graham amendment was dropped in conference. So that's why they're so bellicose: they knew they were going to lose.

[jamilk99]

Sure - it's the PHOTOS of torture that will cause people to attack our troops; not the actual torture itself.