Lieberman and Graham sharply criticized Obama's original decision not to fight the appeals court ruling in favor of the ACLU's FOIA lawsuit all the way to the Supreme Court. Lieberman and Graham then sponsored an amendment - the Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act of 2009 - attached to the Senate's Homeland Security appropriations bill that called for the Department of Defense to prohibit the release of abuse photographs for a period of three years.
The Senate unanimously passed the Lieberman/Graham amendment on July 9. Congressmen Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and Heath Shuler (D-North Carolina) sponsored similar legislation in the House. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at the time it was a strong possibility the language barring release of the photographs would be stripped from the final version of the spending bill, which now appears unlikely.
In a statement after House and Senate conferees on the Appropriations Committee met Wednesday, Lieberman and Graham said they are both "looking forward" to swift passage of the legislation and urged Obama to sign the bill into law.
"I'm pleased Congress has finally acted to prevent the further release of photos showing detainee abuse," Graham said. "I hope the courts will give deference to the Executive and Legislative branches who now speak with one voice prohibiting the photos' release. From the beginning I have said these photos do not add anything new. The release of these photos would be used by our enemies to incite violence against our soldiers and civilians serving abroad."
Last September, in upholding a lower court ruling ordering the release of the photos, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals noted that past US administrations had championed the release of photos that showed prisoners of war being abused and tortured.
Notably, after World War II, the US government publicized photos of prisoners in Japanese and German prisons and concentration camps, which the court noted, "showed emaciated prisoners, subjugated detainees, and even corpses. But the United States championed the use of the photos as a means of holding the perpetrators accountable."
Additionally, the appeals court shot down arguments like those made by Graham, saying, "It is plainly insufficient to claim that releasing documents could reasonably be expected to endanger some unspecified member of a group so vast as to encompass all United States troops, coalition forces, and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan," the appeals court panel of judges ruled.
The appeals court further added that releasing "the photographs is likely to further the purposes of the Geneva Conventions by deterring future abuse of prisoners."
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