This AP story -- "Judge: Public Has Right to See Abuse Photos" (Wash Post, free registration may be required, etc) is going to turn out to be important, if the government doesn't overturn the ruling on appeal:
NEW YORK -- A federal judge has told the government it will have to release additional pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, civil rights lawyers said.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein, finding the public has a right to see the pictures, told the government Thursday he will sign an order requiring it to release them to the American Civil Liberties Union, the lawyers said.Reports and papers are one thing -- graphic pictures beamed nightly around the world on CNN are entirely another. If even one of these photos has the iconic power of some of the
images from the Vietnam War that affected public opinion so strongly, it will have a huge impact, and unfortunately, not a good one for the United States. Besides affecting popular sentiment in this country, it may also further inflame anti-American sentiments around the world, but we did earn that by our conduct. Every choice has consequences, and we'll be paying for this one, in dollars as well as more important currencies, for decades to come.
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