President Obama has reversed his position on releasing photos of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan being abused while in US custody – now arguing that they could stoke anti-American sentiment and endanger U.S. troops.  It seems, however, that greater anti-American sentiment is provoked by conducting such abuses and then hiding the evidence.

On May 13, the Obama administration ordered Justice Department officials to argue in court against releasing hundreds of such photos.  With this action, the Obama administration is departing from previous policy promises of transparency and accountability.  Coupled with the administration’s refusal take action against those who set torture policies or carried them out, this move to hide evidence of past abuses begins to look like a pattern.   An unsettling pattern.

The government has conducted atrocities in the name of the American people.  The American people have a right to know what they were and their details.  The world has a right to know that our government is being fully transparent about its past and thus committed to not repeating it.  It will not be comfortable, pleasant or easy but the first step to reconciling our government with those who have been its victims is to acknowledge the truth.

Moreover, what is the impact of reduced transparency on the American memory?  What are we protecting ourselves from?  It does not seem that we are protecting ourselves from external attacks but that we are protecting ourselves from our conscience.  There are very few people anymore who do not associate the war in Vietnam with the iconic image of a naked young girl in the summer of 1972 fleeing her village as it burns after a napalm attack while American GI’s march calmly behind her.  The image is haunting and uncomfortable, but it’s the truth and representative of not just one event but of the entire debacle.  Here, we have nearly a thousand such representations being redacted from public view.

Images tell us more than words ever can.  The media and politicians utilize legalistic jargon to describe the torture because, for political reasons, no one actually wants to call it “torture.”  Americans deserve to know what “stress positions” actually look like.  Yet, the administration argues, "The release of these old photographs of past behavior that has now been clearly prohibited can serve no public good" (My emphasis added.)

Image by flickr user celineon used under a creative commons license.