Obama does ‘complete 180′ on detainee photos
posted at 1:14 pm on May 13, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
After a bipartisan round of condemnation over his decision not to appeal a ruling on detainee photos to the Supreme Court, President Barack Obama reversed himself in a move called a “complete 180″ by Jake Tapper at ABC. Obama instructed his White House counsel Greg Craig to file an appeal to keep photos depicting abuse of detainees by American troops from the public. The ACLU will not be pleased:
President Obama met with White House counsel Greg Craig and other members of the White House counsel team last week and told them that he had second thoughts about the decision to hand over photographs of detainee abuse to the ACLU, per a judge’s order, and had changed his mind.
The president “believes their release would endanger our troops,” a White House official says, adding that the president “believes that the national security implications of such a release have not been fully presented to the court.”
At the end of that meeting, the president directed Craig to object to the immediate release of the photos on those grounds. In an Oval Office meeting with Iraq Commander General Ray Odierno, the president told him of his decision to argue against the release of the photographs.
The move is a complete 180. In a letter from the Justice Department to a federal judge on April 23, the Obama administration announced that the Pentagon would turn over 44 photographs showing detainee abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq during the Bush administration.
Rumors of the switch began leaking yesterday out of the West Wing, accompanied by a strange non-answer by Robert Gibbs. The expiration date on Obama’s original position came less than three weeks after publicly taking it. At the time, Obama insisted that the need to be honest exceeded our national-security concerns, and the safety of our troops as well.
What changed? The decision angered the military, which recalled the hysterics over the Abu Ghraib photos. Even Obama’s allies on the decision admitted that the release would damage security and put American troops in more danger, including John Kerry, who said they made great propaganda for our terrorist enemies. With the CIA already battling the White House after the release of the OLC memos, the last thing Obama needed was a war with the Pentagon.
In the end, it may not make much difference. The Supreme Court could uphold the lower court decision to force their release, and Craig may not bother to work tirelessly to win this appeal anyway. The initial withdrawal of the White House on this appeal will certainly come under scrutiny by the justices. However, that will then be their problem and not Obama’s, a calculation that one wonders how Obama missed in the first place.
Blowback
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The media has blown of the real reason for this complete turn around. The UK is threatening to do exactly like President Obama did with releasing intel with the torture memo’s and he wants to put a stop to it.
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/12/obama-threatens-to-limit-us-intel-with-brits/comments/
It appears the Obama administration was completely clueless about what releasing intel would do and the precedence it would set. I don’t think they are going to be able to do the damage control they are hoping for.
JeffinSac on May 13, 2009 at 2:12 PM
Huffies aren’t Happy.
ctmom on May 13, 2009 at 2:13 PM
Tapper was misinformed on the matter like most of the MSM. It was much ado about nothing. A political witchhunt just like all the other bogus ethics charges against Palin that have been rejected and tossed out!
sarahpalinfan99 on May 13, 2009 at 2:13 PM
oops the link should be: http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/12/obama-threatens-to-limit-us-intel-with-brits/
or click on article if you are in the comments section.
JeffinSac on May 13, 2009 at 2:14 PM
I don’t think Michael Jackson breakdancing, could do the moves Obama is doing.
upinak on May 13, 2009 at 2:14 PM
I’m just curious why Obama didn’t think it was a threat before-he had to have the public & some in Congress give him $hit about it before he could make his own decision on the wisdom of it?!!!!!
Badger40 on May 13, 2009 at 2:14 PM
President Obama has come to his senses on this issue at last. Now if he can only hold up under the coming tsunami from the moonbats and lefty bloggers as they go berserkers over this news.
sarahpalinfan99 on May 13, 2009 at 2:16 PM
Also known as the Ready, Fire, Aim technique.
a capella on May 13, 2009 at 2:16 PM
Obama is an absolute child.
Chuck Schick on May 13, 2009 at 2:17 PM
This idiocy warrants a shoe-throwing at Obama …
Conservative_SAHM on May 13, 2009 at 2:17 PM
Bad week for those kids , miss Cali not demoted either.
the_nile on May 13, 2009 at 2:18 PM
So who’s gonna “leak” the photos?
LibTired on May 13, 2009 at 2:18 PM
I know the answer: because he’s a lightweight and a tool; he can’t see farther ahead than his own nose; he’s spite-driven, thin-skinned and profoundly shallow.
Any other questions?
mr.blacksheep on May 13, 2009 at 2:19 PM
Huh. I thought King O’Bonehead was the Solomonic Sage of Listening? You mean he didn’t carefully and patiently seek out all opinions in his Kingdom before judiciously deciding, like some sort of dKos ninny in Grandma’s basement, to do whatever the anarchists thought would be fun?
Surely Tapper has this wrong.
Jaibones on May 13, 2009 at 2:19 PM
I dont know if it’s “senses” , more like opportunism over arrogance.
the_nile on May 13, 2009 at 2:20 PM
Oh, and by the way, those are the things the libs like best about him. To them, those are features, not bugs.
mr.blacksheep on May 13, 2009 at 2:22 PM
I’m dizzy! Please help me!
I’m watching the Gibb’s presser on this story, he’s getting his arse handed to him.
The spin is unreal.
Knucklehead on May 13, 2009 at 2:24 PM
Hmm, maybe somebody ought to go to where these pictures are stored, and accidentally drop a lighted cigarette on them, after accidentally soaking them in gasoline. These things happen, just ask Sandy Berger.
Iblis on May 13, 2009 at 2:30 PM
Triangulation? Of course. Axelrod is counting on the fact that O-bots are too stupid to recognize that he has firmly stated his position on both sides of the detainee abuse issue. Ax calculates correctly.
Angry Dumbo on May 13, 2009 at 2:32 PM
Pretty ironic that it leads to Obama, after meandering dangerously about for a while, at last seeing and taking the obviously correct path that Bush would have taken directly. Is it flexibility or stupidity?
DarkCurrent on May 13, 2009 at 2:33 PM
When do the training wheels come off the 0bama Presidency?
Cicero43 on May 13, 2009 at 2:35 PM
In a few months we will be told that the GITMO detainees will remain at GITMO. There won’t be a peep out of most of the left. They will just blame it all on Bush.
SC.Charlie on May 13, 2009 at 2:41 PM
It is finger in the air. At least for now, it is not middle finger in the air.
Johan Klaus on May 13, 2009 at 2:43 PM
Obama is such a little weasel. Sniveling leftist trash.
elduende on May 13, 2009 at 2:45 PM
strangelet on May 13, 2009 at 1:26 PM
Tell us what you really think about Bush.
Johan Klaus on May 13, 2009 at 2:45 PM
I’m not sure it’s in the air.
LibTired on May 13, 2009 at 2:46 PM
Bubeleh,
Obama’s position is now EXACTLY the same as Bush’s. What’s your excuse for that?
and number 2: what’ll be your excuse when he leaves Gitmo open?
mjk on May 13, 2009 at 2:47 PM
You are probably correct.
Johan Klaus on May 13, 2009 at 2:48 PM
\
And renditions.
Johan Klaus on May 13, 2009 at 2:49 PM
You’re thinking of the thumb, right?
Daggett on May 13, 2009 at 2:53 PM
Funny how some like to espouse the saintedness of Obama, while turning blind eyes to the facts that he supports renditions, and infanticide.
But a few drops on a terrorists face? Whooooooodoggie, then it’s to hell with Bush, the evil satan. Even if it did prevent further attacks.
capejasmine on May 13, 2009 at 2:55 PM
Betcha somebody finally looked thru ALL the pix & decided they’re not so nasty after all, and wouldn’t be useful enough to advance the ‘Bad Bush’ agenda …
or they’ve identified some really bad offenders who are related to administration/political mucky-mucks.
CaveatEmpty on May 13, 2009 at 2:56 PM
I’m actually trying not to think about it.
LibTired on May 13, 2009 at 2:57 PM
Perhaps they got a few polaroids of Pelosi in with her leather, and whips, or Franks, begging for spankings? ROFL!!!
capejasmine on May 13, 2009 at 3:01 PM
I think this is just to postpone the release of the photos after he returns from his trip to Egypt. I don’t really think he doesn’t want to release them…it’s just a matter of timing.
Of course, he doesn’t have a child in the Armed Services that will be at even greater risk.
I hate that man.
ladyingray on May 13, 2009 at 3:02 PM
Good for him and good for me since I love seeing the huffies and kossies go crazy.
The left nuts have no problem if our soldiers get killed because we release the photos to conduct some national moral cleansing, if more people die of a terrorist attack because we don’t torture or millions of unborn babies die to satisfy choice.
Actually is seems all about death – not theirs off course but everyone else’s.
dpierson on May 13, 2009 at 3:03 PM
krazy kos kids losing their minds
http://www.polmachina.com/?p=206
ranchoforte on May 13, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Tricycles do not have training wheels. He is still trying to make the pedals work. Looks like he has figured out how to make it move forwards and backwards. The kodak moment is all those standing around him, with idiotic smiles, clapping and commenting at how well he is doing with the pedals, and how well he is imitating his teleprompter showing a looped clip on how it is done.
Franklyn on May 13, 2009 at 3:18 PM
What is so hilarious about the Leftists getting their getalifes in a bunch about the secession thing is that they all happily voted for two “candidates” who had in fact voted to let the state O’bama claims to have been born in secede from the US.
That would be the Akaka Bill. Its sponsor even admitted that it would eventually allow Hawai’i to leave the US.
Hypocritical double standard, you say? Of course it is.
Del Dolemonte on May 13, 2009 at 3:22 PM
Ain’t on-the-job training a bitch…
Wyznowski on May 13, 2009 at 3:24 PM
Of course, when the court upholds the ruling in favor of the ACLU, Obama will shrugh his shoulders and say “geez, what else do you want me to do? Not like I’m the President or anything.”
hawksruleva on May 13, 2009 at 3:28 PM
Im sure its been said. Obamas just covering his butt. He will say “Look i tried to stop it but it was out of my hands.” He can have his cake and eat it too.
Greed on May 13, 2009 at 3:42 PM
After going on and on about releasing these photos and then reversing the decision, all it does is tell the terrorist and the muslim world is that they were too horrible to release. Obama is a grade A asshole.
Blake on May 13, 2009 at 3:53 PM
btw Jake Tapper is not your friend.
He thought Palin was a total dope and a liar on Troopergate.
strangelet on May 13, 2009 at 1:28 PM
It’s not a matter of being a friend. It’s a matter of being reporter willing to go after both sides of the aisle for lying, flip-flopping, and cheating. You know, rather than not covering it, making excuses, or burying it on page B12.
amerpundit on May 13, 2009 at 1:38 PM
I agree with ameripundit. I like Jake Tapper as a journalist but on Troopergate he and the rest of the media never did an iota of research on what happens “in the lower 48″ when a police officer is caught on duty drinking or tazering someone for “fun” and not in the course of an arrest. If they had done that research they would have found that firing of said individual is quite common. It would have been MUCH worse IMO if he had been drinking on duty and had tasered someone and that person died on the scene and it came out that he was related to the governor and that she had known about his problems.
journeyintothewhirlwind on May 13, 2009 at 4:00 PM
ACLU should be disbanded. Once they worry about foreign terrorists and do not stand up for their own-meaning WOMEN, men and children-it is as worthless as the UN.
Off with them!
ProudPalinFan on May 13, 2009 at 4:02 PM
Nah, I just show them my “Sarah!” bumper sticker.
ProudPalinFan on May 13, 2009 at 4:07 PM
Ain’t it nice to break somebody’s wrists, riiiight?
ProudPalinFan on May 13, 2009 at 4:09 PM
To Whomever it is that keeps slapping Obam’ter up side the head and saying “Dude, THINK about this!”, I beg you to keep it up!
JamesLee on May 13, 2009 at 1:26 PM
It must be the woman smacking his forehead on the V-8 TV commercial
ProudPalinFan on May 13, 2009 at 4:12 PM
complete 180′ — so, a change of three degrees?
Just giving you a nautically hard time, Captain.
Jens on May 13, 2009 at 4:12 PM
Barack Obama, neocon in chief?
All I can say is amazing!
Mr. Joe on May 13, 2009 at 4:13 PM
On a local show last night here in KC, a caller was wondering just WHO the ACLU is. Maybe we should file a case demanding release of pictures of THEM!
JamesLee on May 13, 2009 at 4:13 PM
Hope, then Change
faraway on May 13, 2009 at 4:18 PM
What do you expect from a 1/2 term senator with ZERO experience? The community organizer has lots of loose ends.
Fumblin’ Bumblin’ Stumblin’
TN Mom on May 13, 2009 at 4:24 PM
+1000
TN Mom on May 13, 2009 at 4:26 PM
Oh bullshit.
Obama stopped the practice of
waterboardingtorture.He has to extricate us from the clusterfuck that 8 years of “conservative values” have landed us in. Just like he has to get us out of the econopalypse, the grand misadventure of the manifest destiny of judeoxian democracy in MENA, two wars, the destruction of our international relations and global street cred.
If he had sanctioned the release of the pics you would be screamin’ blue murder that he was killing our troops.
GW is going in the history books as the Torture President.
Nice legacy.
/spit
strangelet on May 13, 2009 at 4:26 PM
ROFL!!!
ProudPalinFan on May 13, 2009 at 4:27 PM
CaveatEmpty on May 13, 2009 at 2:56 PM
Any similarity between this comment and Donald Trump’s press conference of Carrie Prejean is purely coincidental.
ProudPalinFan on May 13, 2009 at 4:42 PM
Dick Cheney: Patriot!
chipandcharge on May 13, 2009 at 4:45 PM
I am so glad that Obama made the right decision. Thank God he decided our troops are more important than the ACLU and the left.
djn on May 13, 2009 at 4:51 PM
strangelet on May 13, 2009 at 4:26 PM
How bout picking up a dictionary to brush up on a few new words, or, go back to huffpo.
oakpack on May 13, 2009 at 5:00 PM
oblahma the meat puppet gets a time out in the corner
Ris4victory on May 13, 2009 at 5:01 PM
Cheney 1
Obama 0
Daggett on May 13, 2009 at 5:02 PM
Most intelligent thing you’ve uttered in this entire thread.
Del Dolemonte on May 13, 2009 at 5:08 PM
Exhibit A: How an Obama worshiper reacts when his/her messiah has been bitch-slapped by Cheney.
Daggett on May 13, 2009 at 5:13 PM
Wolfie on CNN is desperately spinning this as a “great decision” by O’bama, and he’s being helped by Linseed Graham, who is showering praise on Barry as a “great” Commander in Chief.
If Bush had tried to prevent these photos from being released, the reaction would have been totally different.
Del Dolemonte on May 13, 2009 at 5:26 PM
I would love to hear the panic phone call from Pelosi to Obama that caused this reversal.
RobCon on May 13, 2009 at 5:42 PM
I’m glad he’s broken this promise… for now. No telling when he might flip-flop back again though…..
Yakko77 on May 13, 2009 at 5:46 PM
It is just amazing to watch Obamabots like strangelet kiss this man’s behind. No matter how many times he reverses himself they are ready lips puckered to give his butt a big sloppy kiss.
If it was pragmatic to not release the photos today, then it was pragmatic to not release them on April 23rd when he originally said he would.
Machiavellian…what a joke.
Terrye on May 13, 2009 at 7:05 PM
Del Dolemonte:
Not from Graham it would not have been. Graham would have been just as happy to see Bush not release them as Obama. From Wolfie, of course it would have been different.
Terrye on May 13, 2009 at 7:08 PM
strangelet:
Bush will go down in history as the man who liberated 50 million people and kept America safe from AlQaida. What is more he did that in spite of self righteous sanctimonious back stabbing little dunces like you.
Terrye on May 13, 2009 at 7:10 PM
Ok Terreye, Bush will go down in history as the man who liberated 50 million semites and MENA arabs while spending 700 billion AMERICAN taxpayer dollars and 4000 AMERICAN lives from the finest military on the planet to create another Islamic state in Iraq. Yes, Terrye the Iraqis wrote shari’a law into their constitution.
And at the same time GW tortured in our name and threw our economy into the crapper by colluding with Greenspan and buggering the prime down to 1/2 % and tripling the deficit.
niiiice.
strangelet on May 13, 2009 at 8:34 PM
Terrye on May 13, 2009 at 7:10 PM
In thirty years the historians will record the history of GWB as the man who had 7 months in office and did not protect the country from the 9-11 attacks. You think you see it so clearly but the long lens of history will focus on the failures and not the successes of Bush just as it has on Hover, Nixon and Willson. I’m willing to bet that someday one of those ‘liberated’ Iraqis who lost his family to collateral damage from a 500# JDAM bomb might just try to do a 9-11 (ver 2.0) and who will get the blame then? Could be another republican prez. too.
SocratesShadow on May 13, 2009 at 8:49 PM
It’s NOT a 180! Obama is playing both sides. He knows the ACLU will win release of these photos in the courts – or he will make sure they will behind the scenes.
modifiedcontent on May 13, 2009 at 9:11 PM
More accurate.
baldilocks on May 13, 2009 at 9:16 PM
Are you suggesting the President should stop listening to the supreme court?
jonknee on May 13, 2009 at 9:17 PM
<
“Buggering the prime” is the liberal spin to try to explain how the Democrat Congress took a massive economy under a Republican president and destroyed it with mortgage giveaways now? You folks are slick with the Joe Geobbels stuff. Start calling us rodents too and hint about sterilization.
BTW, save your platitudes for the “finest military on the planet”. I don’t believe there’s a liberal alive who wasn’t praying nightly to their particular god of choice for every one of those 4000 deaths and more. If fact, I’m sure you’re surprised and quite disappointed that it wasn’t worse, in that it might have kept him from being reelected. Please don’t pretend. The military knows that liberals hate them. It just makes them despise you more when you condescend to them the way you do.
The pictures were a political game and the military was the pawn. That’s your party and that’s your president. The only other explanation is that he’s stupid. Coin Toss?
And again, I don’t much mind that you’re a liberal attention whore and that you post your daily talking points here. I’m sure that’s your job. Just don’t sicken me with your comments about the military.
hawkdriver on May 13, 2009 at 10:09 PM
Also…
blockquote>Ok Terreye, Bush will go down in history as the man who liberated 50 million semites and MENA arabs while spending 700 billion AMERICAN taxpayer dollars and 4000 AMERICAN lives from the finest military on the planet to create another Islamic state in Iraq.
I guess the liberals are the ones now who only think that America should go to war in the interest of America. Liberals are masters at generalizing the movement to war and also master at ignoring their politicians involvement.
Iraqis do not live under Sharia Law. You should visit so you know what you’re taking about.
hawkdriver on May 13, 2009 at 10:11 PM
Article 2 of the Iraqi constitution begins:
jonknee on May 13, 2009 at 10:34 PM
Nice try. Recognizing the Quran in their Constitution doesn’t mean they’re living under Sharia Law.
You should visit there so you know what you’re talking about.
hawkdriver on May 13, 2009 at 10:53 PM
Dick Cheney : 1 Chicago Jesus : 0
Box Score: HR – Cheney WP: Cheney LP: Obama Balk: Pelosi and Obama
Dire Straits on May 13, 2009 at 10:55 PM
Hope all is going well. Glad to see your posts.
Dire Straits on May 13, 2009 at 10:59 PM
Thanks. Things are good for now. I have to admit the trends don’t make me very optimistic.
hawkdriver on May 13, 2009 at 11:03 PM
See, that’s exactly what YOU expect to happen, too.
Last I checked, the 3 branches of government are co-equal. The Supreme Court doesn’t rule over the executive branch. He could pass an executive order today saying those photos are classified for national security reasons. And he’d be right; the release of those photos will harm US servicemen and women, just like the Abu Ghraib photos did. And that’s a pretty strong argument for national security; but there’s also the fact that the photos will help terrorists train to resist the techniques shown in the photos.
So yes, I would expect a good President to not cave in to the courts on this. But no, I don’t expect Obama to react that way.
hawksruleva on May 13, 2009 at 11:05 PM
I’m just as willing to bet that a young Iraqi who grew up with a father, because Saddam didn’t get the chance to kill his father, will stop that attempt. Your racism is showing. Not all people in the middle east are murdering thugs. And not everyone uses their past to excuse their actions. Just terrorists and liberals.
hawksruleva on May 13, 2009 at 11:10 PM
It only took one night of posts on KOS to get him to reverse his stance and allow the opening for prosecutions on torture. I’d say this will be reversed… right after he returns from Egypt.
hawksruleva on May 13, 2009 at 11:12 PM
Wrong and wrong. Obama’s DoJ argues that it’s not torture unless there’s malicious intent. And the courts agreed with that argument. They argued that in a different case, of course, but that’s the funny thing about the law. It gets applied consistently. Besides that, when waterboarding was done, it was not defined as torture. You’re saying people are guilty of commiting crimes that weren’t crimes yet.
On the economy, Bush and the GOP repeatedly warned that the housing market was running into trouble. They had hearings about the dire straits at Fannie and Freddie. Frank, Dodd and others said there was no cause for alarm. There are mountains of evidence to lay the subprime crises at the feet of Democrats, past and present. The GOP didn’t kick and scream as much as it could have, because they got called RAAAACIST every time they said “people who can’t pay a mortgage shouldn’t get a mortgage”.
hawksruleva on May 13, 2009 at 11:17 PM
Good posts.
hawkdriver on May 13, 2009 at 11:23 PM
You spit on your nation’s former leader? And why be mad at Bush? He’s not fighting this fight. He’s doing what he always did, and that’s not dignifying your attacks with a response. Is THAT what makes you so mad? You wish he’d fight back?
Bush had more important things to do then – keeping America safe. And he’s still got too much class to get down in the mud with liberals. But Cheney is a fighter.
You’re right about the history books, of course. Liberals right those. But most Americans, even in New York, realize the truth. Bush did what he had to do to save you pathetic whelps. He didn’t even have to break any laws to do it. He didn’t have to conceal anything from Dems in Congress. And I’m sure Bush is ok if he gets a bad rap in history books. Saving lives is worth a bad review by some liberal historian. Worth 1,000s of angry columns by latte-sipping dilettantes in their ivory towers. Worth millions of posts by irrational, ungrateful, lazy idiots hoping to cash in on the promise of a free ride by the Dems. Saving lives is even worth making a terrorist suffer discomfort. Bush understood that leaders have to take responsibility for their actions, even when those actions may not prove popular to all people in all times.
I pray that Obama shows similar backbone when his crisis comes.
hawksruleva on May 13, 2009 at 11:25 PM
Lol – one of my bosses used to say “even a blind hog gets an acorn once in a while” ;-)
hawksruleva on May 13, 2009 at 11:27 PM
I “heard” that Hillary influenced Obama on this one. Whatever, it was a smart u-turn.
He set off a very, very stupid firestorm on this issue. I can imagine the stern talk he got from the military about what’s going on.
AnninCA on May 13, 2009 at 11:46 PM
His administration is not listening to the military. They’ve made it very clear they’re in charge.
hawkdriver on May 14, 2009 at 12:03 AM
Well, at least he did the right thing, even if it was clearly and obviously for the wrong reasons…sigh. I guess that’s the best we can hope for with this President.
Cylor on May 14, 2009 at 12:19 AM
Well, ah, that’s not the Ahmadinejad I knew
MB4 on May 14, 2009 at 1:01 AM
LBJ II.
MB4 on May 14, 2009 at 1:03 AM
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