A federal judge has ordered that the Pentagon release the majority of the pictures and three of the video tapes of that the DoD have been withholding from the public.

U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ordered the release of certain pictures in a 50-page decision that said terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan have proven they "do not need pretexts for their barbarism."
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An ACLU release this afternoon said it was getting 70 photos and three video tapes. It also said that the government is being given 20 days to appeal.

What becomes even more interesting about this is not the argument that the photos and videos might inflame passions in the Arab world, and especially Iraq this close to the October 15th Vote Rigging Olympics in Iraq, but the fact that to date, no senior officer who was directly charged or implicated other than a reserve Brigadier General (Janis Karpinski) has even gotten a reprimand. In fact, some have I believe, been kicked further up the food chain by an adminstration greatfulf for their loyal silence and silencing of the facts.

What is shown on the photographs and videos from Abu Ghraib prison that the Pentagon has blocked from release? One clue: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress last year, after viewing a large cache of unreleased images, "I mean, I looked at them last night, and they're hard to believe." They show acts "that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhumane," he added.

Consider another scandal that rocked a branch of the military a decade ago: Tailhook. After the charges were leveled by a female officer virtually every officer in the Navy who was an aviator or in any way associated with Naval Aviation had to prove that they were not there. Senior officers, and not just one or two were summarily sacked and many, because "they should have known better and stopped that awful, behavior". At Tailhook, the harrassment of a white female Naval Officer and other female guests ended careers, even for folks who were not cognizant of the events that happened.

As time went on, however, the fallout from Tailhook '91 continued. Ultimately the careers of fourteen admirals and almost 300 naval aviators were scuttled or damaged by Tailhook. For example Secretary of the Navy H. Lawrence Garrett III and CNO Admiral Frank Kelso were both at Tailhook '91. Garrett ultimately resigned and Kelso retired early two years after the convention.

At Abu Ghraib, the behavior went beyond harrassment, but not a single senior officer who was in command has been sacked or even honestly investigated. The same is true for the senior civilian leadership as well, right up to Mister Bush.

It's certainly not a direct parallel or even close, the horrors of Abu Ghraib dwarf anything that happened in Las Vegas that night. But it's interesting in an ironic way that there was an absolute paralysis (and I speak from experience here) of the Officer Corps in Naval Aviation after Tailhook. It seems to be business as usual after Abu Ghraib, with promotions all around, especially for the loyal minions.