Ex-Justice Department Official: Obama Could Be Forced to Release the Osama Death Photos - Polidicks

[quote=Gizmodo] Barack Obama has finally decided against releasing a photo of Osama bin Laden's corpse as proof of his death. But the former chief freedom of information expert for the U.S. government tells Gawker that he may not have that choice. Up until a few moments ago, when CBS News reported Obama's decision, the Administration had issued mixed signals on whether it intended to release graphic evidence of Osama's demise. CIA director Leon Panetta stated that he expected a photo would eventually be released, while Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton were reportedly opposed. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said yesterday that "there are sensitivities here in terms of the appropriateness of releasing photographs of Osama bin Laden in the aftermath of this firefight." But all the agonizing may have been for naught. According to Daniel Metcalfe, the former chief of the Department of Justice's Office of Information and Privacy—a post that effectively made him the government's top expert in the Freedom of Information Act—the odds are better than even that a FOIA lawsuit seeking the photo's release would succeed. "If someone brought a FOIA complaint seeking the photo, and the government had improperly classified it, I think the government would lose," Metcalfe, who supervised the defense of more than 500 FOIA and Privacy Act lawsuits for the U.S., told Gawker. He is now the executive director of the Collaboration on Government Secrecy at American University's Washington College of Law. Under the FOIA, government agencies—but not the White House itself—can be compelled to turn over any document, photo, video, or other record as long as there's no statutory reason for withholding it. Obama faces two obstacles to keeping the bin Laden photos secret: 1) Since it was (presumably) taken by a Navy SEAL working on a joint mission of the CIA and Department of Defense's Joint Special Operations Command, it was originated by a federal agency subject to the FOIA and 2) There doesn't appear to be a good reason under the FOIA not to disclose it. "As far as photos of the corpse go," said Kel McClanahan, the executive director of National Security Counselors, a law firm specializing in litigating secrecy issues, "there's nothing I can reasonably think of that would exempt that, unless someone classified them." The government could conceivably try to deny a FOIA request for the photos based on the statute's privacy exemptions, but that would put it in the awkward position of going to court to protect Osama bin Laden's surviving family members' privacy. So classification is the best bet. Trouble is, you can't simply classify things because you don't want them released. There has to be a reason. And according to Metcalfe, it's hard to imagine a good reason to classify a simple photograph of bin Laden's corpse. "I don't know of the basis upon which such a photo could properly be classified," Metcalfe says. "It might be classified in a gross sense—as in, 'this entire series of images in a DOD or CIA digital camera, taken during a highly classified operation, is classified.' But I can't imagine on what basis a single image of Osama bin Laden could be classified on its own." According to the executive order governing classification, information can be classified if its "disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause identifiable or describable damage to the national security" and it pertains to a list of sensitive subjects including military plans, foreign governments, or nuclear weapons. If Obama decides thinks release of the photos could inflame the Middle East, he could claim that national security is at risk. And the executive order does allow for the classification of "intelligence activities (including covert action)," which would seem to cover such a highly secretive mission. Trouble is, federal law defines covert action as "an activity or activities of the United States Government to influence political, economic, or military conditions abroad, where it is intended that the role of the United States Government will not be apparent or acknowledged publicly" [pdf]. The role of the United States in killing Osama bin Laden is apparent and has been acknowledged publicly, and was clearly always intended to be acknowledged. It wasn't a covert action. The FOIA only allows properly classified records to be withheld. "If it is classified, and it was classified improperly, then it is highly challengeable in court," Metcalfe says. "It's a tough row to hoe for a FOIA litigant to overcome a classification decision, but there have been cases where courts second-guessed them. It happened just last month in a D.C. District Court case involving the Office of U.S. Trade Representative. I think the odds are very high that the classification action would be rejected, despite the tremendous deference courts give on such matters." McClanahan is less sanguine, arguing that courts would likely give Obama the benefit of the doubt in a FOIA case over the images: "Classified is classified. I can only think of a handful of cases where something is determined to be improperly classified." The last time Obama faced a decision about whether to release potentially explosive images, it was the FOIA that forced his hand. In 2009, the Defense Department was trying to keep dozens of photographs and four videos showing detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib from being released to the ACLU under a FOIA complaint. The government argued that the photos could be withheld under an exemption for law enforcement records that could cause harm to a person if released—the harm in this case being potential riots in the middle east or anticipated retaliation against U.S. soldiers. But the Second Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that argument and ordered the Defense Department to hand them over. Before the Supreme Court could address the issue, Congress passed a special law barring their disclosure. But that law was tailored specifically to the Abu Ghraib photos, and so wouldn't cover Osama. And since there was no law enforcement element to the raid, the government's failed argument in that case couldn't be raised here to see if the Supreme Court will accept it. One way to avoid the FOIA, Metcalfe says, is to make sure that Obama, or the White House, are the only people who have the images. "The White House has some really smart lawyers," he says, "and I suspect they've already considered that the decision to classify such a photo is one that would invite justifiable criticism. I think they'd be better off trying to find a non-classification ground for nondisclosure, such as ‘it's no longer an agency record.' It's far better for the White House to treat this photo as sui generis, and even though it was once in Defense Department or CIA hands, for it to simply leave the executive branch and enter the inner White House, where the FOIA does not apply. So if this photo is sitting on Obama's desk and there's no other copy, Defense can say to any FOIA requester, 'We used to have that, but the president has it now and good luck trying to get it.'" Indeed, Carney seemed to hint at that strategy at yesterday's White House press briefing. Asked if he had seen the photos, he declined to answer, adding unbidden that he wouldn't discuss their location either: "I'm not going to get into who's seen the photographs, or where they are." The trouble with that route is that digital images are sticky. If the photos were delivered digitally from Pakistan or Afghanistan to Langley, Va. and Washington, D.C., there could be any number of government servers or devices that retained copies. It would take a coordinated—and possibly illegal—effort to destroy every digital trace of such images at the Department of Defense and CIA. If any such traces remain, they're FOIAble. And it's not just death photos at stake. The White House has also confirmed that video of bin Laden's funeral exists, and there is presumably a wealth of photos of his compound and the aftermath of the raid that could potentially be releasable. Requesters could even try to get a hold of a copy of the real-time video stream that the White House was reportedly watching as the raid went down—though McClanahan said military video is more easily classified. "Video of action like that is usually classified, because someone can take apart strategies and tactics." Of course, if someone does file a complaint under the FOIA seeking access to the images, and it starts to look like a court might force his hand, Obama could turn to Congress for another one-off law protecting the bin Laden photos. But it's unclear if the sentiment in favor keeping the Osama photos will be as unanimous as it was in the Abu Ghraib case. [/quote] Source: [url]http://gizmodo.com/#!5798634/ex+justice-department-official-obama-could-be-forced-to-release-the-osama-death-photos[/url]

Good.

I hope they do release them, or are forced to.

Can't wait.

Here we go again. Watch some idiots make a conspiracy about faking the photos.

[QUOTE=muffinmastah;29626383]Here we go again. Watch some idiots make a conspiracy about faking the photos.[/QUOTE] This. Releasing the photos won't do shit to deter the conspiracy theorists. You cannot reason with the unreasonable.

You're pretty juvenile if you disagree with the Presidents decision.

[QUOTE=Shadaez;29626522]You're pretty juvenile if you disagree with the Presidents decision.[/QUOTE] what

I do not really mind what the president decides, the picture will leak anyway.

There is absolutely nothing to gain from having the pictures shown, just possible negatives. Plus, as soon as it's out it will be everywhere and it's incredibly graphic (grey matter) and will be everywhere. Not everyone wants to see that, and not everyone wants their children to see that.

It'd be good for proof and junk. But honestly I wouldn't give a fuck if they released it or not. It'll just piss off extremists.

Just fucking release it already.

Although it's against Islamic Tradition when it comes to death, burial etc in this case we should be able to see it.

[QUOTE=angelangel;29626622]what[/QUOTE] clearly sarcasm

[QUOTE=AWarGuy;29627799]Although it's against Islamic Tradition when it comes to death, burial etc in this case we should be able to see it.[/QUOTE] I love how people call Osama Islamic when he is clearly not. The guy's given us many many many reasons to not support his psuedo-religious-cult-thing, and I very much wonder why we've given this guy any mercy related to that. He is anything but an Islamist and the US should stop acting like he is.

I feel like saying he's Islamic is an insult to Islam...but I guess they didn't want to anger Al-Qaeda anymore then they already did by murdering their leader.

[QUOTE=bopie;29627820]clearly sarcasm[/QUOTE] No, it isn't.

[QUOTE=Shadaez;29627500]There is absolutely nothing to gain from having the pictures shown, just possible negatives. Plus, as soon as it's out it will be everywhere and it's incredibly graphic (grey matter) and will be everywhere. Not everyone wants to see that, and not everyone wants their children to see that.[/QUOTE] Children are already seeing an entire nation of people rejoicing over death, if you want to get into possible psychological effects you should probably take a look at what's already happening and how it affects children watching.

[QUOTE=Zeke129;29628055]Children are already seeing an entire nation of people rejoicing over death, if you want to get into possible psychological effects you should probably take a look at what's already happening and how it affects children watching.[/QUOTE] No need to put more out there, especially for no reason at all. I really can't think of any good reason the photo should be released. Even if it was heavily censored.

Someone should have asked wikileaks to do this. We would have seen them instead of hearing how Obama does not want to release them.

[QUOTE=AWarGuy;29627799]Although it's against Islamic Tradition when it comes to death, burial etc in this case we should be able to see it.[/QUOTE] Osama is [b]MUSLIM[/b] not Islamic. Muslim people generally pray to Islam, but Osama is non-practicing. The only reason he was buried according to tradition is because it was convenient. [editline]5th May 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Shadaez;29628149]No need to put more out there, especially for no reason at all. I really can't think of any good reason the photo should be released. Even if it was heavily censored.[/QUOTE] ED had a whole fucking page full of disturbing images, and sick fucks take pictures of new gorey shit every day. This isn't the absolute most disturbing image in the world hands down never to be beaten again. And tell me, what ACTUAL proof do we have as for him being dead? All we've seen are faked photos. Until there's an official release we have no clue what's actually going on. And by the way, shit like this [quote] Here we go again. Watch some idiots make a conspiracy about faking the photos.[/quote] [quote]This. Releasing the photos won't do shit to deter the conspiracy theorists. You cannot reason with the unreasonable.[/quote] Is getting worse than the actual conspiracy theorists. Who cares if the picture is called a fake, if it IS a fake then the "crazy" theorists will come up with ACTUAL PROOF (something you government lovers can't seem to grasp the concept of) and show WHY they say that it's fake. If they can't come up with actual proof, just ignore them.

[QUOTE=Bigby Wolf;29632178] ED had a whole fucking page full of disturbing images, and sick fucks take pictures of new gorey shit every day. This isn't the absolute most disturbing image in the world hands down never to be beaten again. And tell me, what ACTUAL proof do we have as for him being dead? All we've seen are faked photos. Until there's an official release we have no clue what's actually going on..[/QUOTE] True, but however, it's not the fact that it's gory. You know how many people in the rest of the world were shocked that we were celebrating Osama's death? How would you think that they would react if the White House, a respectable civilized government, posted pictures of his dead body on their website. They would imply that we are exactly as uncivilized as Al Qaeda.

Just because I want proof that Osama is dead, doesn't make me as "uncivilized" as Al Qaeda. Not sure about you, but I don't trust my governments words alone, I need some viable proof.

Possible photo of Bin Laden: Image doesn't work. Link: [url]http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c08_1304540290[/url]

[QUOTE=CoolKingKaso;29632439]True, but however, it's not the fact that it's gory. You know how many people in the rest of the world were shocked that we were celebrating Osama's death? How would you think that they would react if the White House, a respectable civilized government, posted pictures of his dead body on their website. They would imply that we are exactly as uncivilized as Al Qaeda.[/QUOTE] There was a fucking party AT THE LOCATION of Saddam's execution, who the fuck cares of they think we're being uncivilized? Most of them already hate Americans. There is absolutely no proof aside from the governments word.

[QUOTE=CoolKingKaso;29632439]True, but however, it's not the fact that it's gory. You know how many people in the rest of the world were shocked that we were celebrating Osama's death? How would you think that they would react if the White House, a respectable civilized government, posted pictures of his dead body on their website. They would imply that we are exactly as uncivilized as Al Qaeda.[/QUOTE] Osama lost any civil rights when he lead the attack on the world trade centers and the 7/7 bombs killing thousands of people. His death should be celebrated.

[QUOTE=Sharpshooter;29632911]Osama lost any civil rights when he lead the attack on the world trade centers and the 7/7 bombs killing thousands of people. His death should be celebrated.[/QUOTE] Or you could throw him in a UN court, "justice for all", you know?

He resisted arrest, when you have the most wanted person on your hands, you don't fuck around, if he refuses to come peacefully then he must be killed.

[QUOTE=Sharpshooter;29633045]He resisted arrest, when you have the most wanted person on your hands, you don't fuck around, if he refuses to come peacefully then he must be killed.[/QUOTE] Unless we're shown the video how do we know he DID resist?

[QUOTE=Sharpshooter;29633045]He resisted arrest, when you have the most wanted person on your hands, you don't fuck around, if he refuses to come peacefully then he must be killed.[/QUOTE] He was unarmed and hiding behind his wife at the time, according to a lot of news sources. And what does shooting him in the face accomplish other than fulfilling people's stupid feelings of revenge? They've made a martyr out of him, his supporters are going to want revenge now too, and both sides are just going to continue blowing each other up.