Those Geneva Convention Rules Serve a Purpose After All!

I'm not a sentimental person by nature, but gosh if the following Associated Press story (via Newsday.com) didn't bring tears of joy to my eyes. The U.S. government, doing an about-face in order to selflessly protect the feelings of the very prisoners they once thought so little of that they tortured. How heartwarming!

ACLU Blames Gov't for Abu Ghraib Delay

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer

Fri Jul 22,10:36 PM ET

The American Civil Liberties Union accused the government Friday of putting another legal roadblock in the way of its bid to allow the public to see photographs and videos stemming from the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.

The ACLU said sealed documents the government filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan will be used to argue that dozens of photographs cannot be released because they would result in a safety threat to individuals.

"We obviously express skepticism about the latest move on the government's part to withhold information the public is clearly entitled to," said Amrit Singh, a staff attorney with the ACLU.

The government raised its new challenge to releasing pictures and videos from Abu Ghraib prison on the same day it was supposed to show the exhibits to a judge presiding over the case, the ACLU said.

Sean H. Lane, the government lawyer handling the case, referred questions to Herbert Haddad, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney David Kelley.

Haddad said the government did file papers in the case under seal, and he said he would not discuss their contents for that reason.Singh said the delay by the government ould be challenged in court by the ACLU, which filed a lawsuit in October 2003 seeking information on the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody and the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture. The ACLU contends that prisoner abuse is systemic.

Lane has argued that releasing pictures, even in redacted form, would violate Geneva Convention rules on prisoner treatment by subjecting detainees to additional humiliation or embarrassment.

Emphases mine.

Sarcasm aside, I am in awe at the impudence of the Bush administration. Those clowns have, at every turn, sought ways to sidestep the Geneva Convention rules on prisoner treatment because their intention all along has been to not follow them. It is a remarkable display of cheekiness that they now plead safety behind the same rules they have repeatedly betrayed, and will continue to betray. Amazing.