The Torture/"Rape" Photos: Crime v. Cover-up

By GottaLaff

I originally posted in detail about this here.

Digby, in part:

So, we don't know if the pictures Taguba refers to are the pictures which were covered under thee ACLU's FOIA request, and whether they still exist. We do know that accusations of rape were investigated under both the Taguba and Fay reports, but can't be sure of the disposition of them. And again, we don't know if these pictures refer to those specific allegations or if they pertain to different incidents. The Pentagon denies that there are any pictures which depict these heinous acts. In other words, confusion still reigns and suspicions run high.

The administration claims that it withheld the FOIA pictures because they were more of the same and would inflame anti-American hatred which, as I said, always seemed contradictory. And now it appears that they may actually show something much worse than we've seen --- and the administration looks as if it's covering that up by saying that there's nothing new. Perhaps they aren't, but their conflicting statements and refusal to release the pictures quite naturally raises these questions.

The administration needs to realize that it can't avoid this issue even if it wants to and it's not useful to try to finesse it or kick the issue down the road. There are simply too many lies under the bridge --- it's impossible to take the government at its word. If sexual assaults beyond those which we already know about and saw evidence of (and which were prosecuted) happened, then it will come out. The only question is whether it will be a drip, drip, drip of toxic revelations and speculations that will continue to poison this country and its relationship to the world or whether it will be an official, transparent accounting of what happened. Either way, there's no running away from it.

Please go read the whole thing. Digby addresses my own struggles with this, and my tendency toward getting this out in the open (not literally, there are ways to tell the story without blasting photos all over the airwaves).

I've maintained that the ObamAdministration needs to take control of the message, and not give the appearance of hiding anything. The skill and wisdom with which they do that will determine the way the world reacts, especially considering the horrific revelations have already leaked out, and inevitably, the photos themselves will, too.