Obama’s Change of Heart

“The Obama administration’s adoption of the stonewalling tactics and opaque policies of the Bush administration flies in the face of the president’s stated desire to restore the rule of law, to revive our moral standing in the world and to lead a transparent government.”

And so went the ACLU’s outraged reaction to the President’s announcement that he has decided to reverse course and fight the release of pictures depicting the abuse of detainees. What struck me as interesting is the fact that the administration had no problems releasing Office of Legal Counsel memos detailing the interrogation methods employed during the previous administration, but it drew the line at this group of pictures.

In his statement on the subject yesterday, President Obama identified the pictures as “associated with closed investigations of the alleged abuse of detainees in our ongoing war effort.” In other words, he was quick to point out that these pictures are different than what was disclosed in the memos in that the behavior exhibited in these pictures is now being investigated as being improper. But then he went on to say that the photos “are not particularly sensational”.

It’s a big jump from ‘these photos depict alleged abuses’ to ‘they’re not that sensational’. Obama then proceeded to inform us that the pictures do not conform to the Army Field Manual’s standards. Is this because of the abuse or because the behavior depicted was acceptable under Bush but not Obama? If the latter is the case, one would think that President Obama would be as quick to release these photos as he was the memos in an effort to distance himself from the former President and what was acceptable during his term.

Also, if the pictures would put our troops and people in great danger, why was the administration scheduled to release the pictures up until yesterday? Just a few weeks ago on April 23, the Justice Department wrote a letter to Judge Allen K. Hellerstein, the judge in the Southern District of NY handling the case, explaining their intention to fully cooperate with the previous judgment in the case and release the pictures by May 28^th.

What explains the change of heart? And, why release the memos but not the pictures? Last month, we were told that the administration had resigned itself to releasing the pictures because it did not believe the Supreme Court would hear the case and reverse the appellate court’s judgment. Nothing other than the administration’s position has changed since then. As a matter of fact, the new grounds that the administration intends to argue to keep the pictures from the public won’t work for a number of reasons, as Politico reports. First, the administration will not be allowed to present new arguments on national security grounds as Robert Gibbs suggested because only matters of law may be brought up on appeal, not matters of fact or new arguments. Second, according to an ACLU lawyer, the Bush administration already made the national security arguments that Gibbs referred to.

Finally, as Andrew C. McCarthy of National Review points out, Pres. Obama could have kept these pictures out of the limelight by either issuing an executive order or having Congress pass a statute to that effect, rather than proceeding with the matter through the legal process where there are no guarantees. And if Obama has been forthcoming about his reason for choosing not to release the pictures, namely because they would put our people in even more danger than they already face, then why wouldn’t he exercise one of these options and put an end to this issue?

One possibility for why the President chose to reverse course and keep these pictures hidden may be because of the power of these images – particularly given this administration’s focus on remaking the White House brand. In order for the President to reconcile releasing the memos but not the pictures, he had to make the case for why the pictures are different. The President failed in reconciling his actions. By doing so, he earned the displeasure of his supporters on the left and also left his more skeptical constituents once against wondering what his true intentions are and whether this was just another distraction since it is more likely than not that the appellate court’s decision will ultimately be upheld and the pictures released in time.

Tags: alleged detainee abuse