Obama in shock u-turn on abuse photos

President Barack Obama will try to block the court-ordered release of photos showing US troops abusing prisoners, in an abrupt U-turn on his previous position.

He said the change of mind came out of concern that the pictures would “further inflame anti-American opinion” and endanger US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The White House had said last month it would not oppose an appeals court ruling that set a May 28 deadline for releasing dozens of photos from military investigations of alleged misconduct.

But American commanders in the war zones have expressed deep concern about fresh damage the photos might do, especially as the US tries to wind down the Iraq war and step up operations against the Taliban and al Qaida in Afghanistan.

When photos emerged in 2004 from the infamous US-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, showing grinning American soldiers posing with detainees – some of the prisoners naked, some being held on leashes – the pictures caused a huge anti-American backlash around the globe, particularly among Muslims.

Mr Obama, explaining his change of heart on releasing the other photos, said they already had served their purpose in investigations of “a small number of individuals”.

Those cases were all concluded by 2004, and the president said “the individuals who were involved have been identified, and appropriate actions have been taken”.

The Pentagon conducted 200 investigations into alleged abuse connected with the photos in question. The administration did not provide an immediate accounting of how they turned out.

“This is not a situation in which the Pentagon has concealed or sought to justify inappropriate action,” Mr Obama said of the photos.

“In fact, the most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.”

Mr Obama’s reversal on the photo release set off immediate reactions from bloggers, liberals who decried that he was giving in to political pressure and conservatives who agreed with the decision, but said it proved Mr Obama was inconsistent.

One Huffington Post blogger called the decision “a terrible mistake” and declared that Mr Obama had buckled under pressure from former US vice president Dick Cheney.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs said release of photos from the cases would merely “provide, in some ways, a sensationalistic portion of that investigation”.

Mr Obama said later, “I want to emphasise that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib.”

Still, he said he had made it newly clear. “Any abuse of detainees is unacceptable. It is against our values. It endangers our security. It will not be tolerated,” he said.

The effort to keep the photos from becoming public represented a sharp reversal from Obama’s repeated pledges for open government, and in particular from his promise to be forthcoming with information that courts have ruled should be publicly available.

It invited criticism from the more liberal segments of his Democratic Party, which want a full accounting, and even redress, for what they see as the misdeeds of the former Bush administration.

“The decision to not release the photographs makes a mockery of President Obama’s promise of transparency and accountability,” said Amwerican Civil Liberties Union lawyer Amrit Singh, who had argued and won the case before the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.

“It is essential that these photographs be released so that the public can examine for itself the full scale and scope of prisoner abuse that was conducted in its name.”

But on Capitol Hill, Republicans welcomed the change and a military group also said it was relieved.

“These photos represent isolated incidents where the offending servicemen and women have already been prosecuted,” said Brian Wise, executive director of Military Families United. “There is no good that can come from releasing these photos.”