Obama and the Interrogation Photos

The Bush administration established torture as part of its arsenal to combat terrorism. It authorized practices that were antitethical to the Geneva Convention of which the U.S. was one of the original signers.

This black eye on our commitment to the humane treatment of detainees is a stain legitimately placed at the feet of the last administration. At least until now.

Barack Obama has decided not to release the Department of Defense photos of prisoners' interrogations conducted by the military in Afghanistan and Iraq( the release of the photos had been won by the ACLU in a petition to the courts and the DOD had agreed to release).

The Obama administration decided the photos would have put American soldiers' lives in danger in both conflicts. Sadly, this has been the case since the photos of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses in Iraq came to light in 2004. When you torture and it becomes known throughout the world and particularly in the countries where you are conducting the abuses, you are already suffering the consequences.

But the Obama administration, in its zeal to "put torture behind it and move on", instead exacerbates the issue by withholding the release of the photos and contradicting its original decision. It also compromises its intent for more "transparency", in how they run the administration and more resembles the secrecy of the Bush administration.

The Obama administration is either transparent, particularly with revealing the ugliness which it was not a part of, thus acknowledging its complete break with past abhorent policies and practices; or it equivocates, backslides and dissembles, as it has just done, giving the appearance of trying to cover up those past abuses and making it an unwitting accomplice.

It can't have it both ways.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future