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Al-Maliki said "Baghdad will burn" if the photos are released
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama reversed his decision to release detainee abuse photos from Iraq and Afghanistan after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned that Iraq would erupt into violence, U.S. military and State Department officials said.In the days leading up to a May 28 deadline to release the photos in response to an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit, U.S. officials, led by Christopher Hill, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told al-Maliki that the administration was preparing to release photos of suspected detainee abuse taken from 2003 to 2006. When U.S. officials told al-Maliki, "he went pale in the face," said a U.S. military official, who along with others requested anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity. The official said releasing the photos would lead to more violence that could delay the scheduled U.S. withdrawal from cities by June 30 and that Iraqis wouldn't make a distinction between old and new photos. The public outrage and increase in violence could lead Iraqis to reject the security agreement in a planned referendum and refuse to permit U.S. forces to stay until the end of 2011. Al-Maliki said "Baghdad will burn" if the photos are released, said a second U.S. military official. A U.S. official who's knowledgeable about the photographs said that at least two of them depict nudity; one is of a woman suggestively holding a broomstick; one shows a detainee with bruises but offers no explanation of how he got them; and another is of hooded detainees with weapons pointed at their heads. Some of the photos were of detainees being held in prisons, while others were taken at the time a detainee was captured. "It was not so much the photos themselves, but that the perception that they would be Abu Ghraib-type photos," added the senior defense official, who said U.S. officials were worried "about the potential street consequences" of making the photos public. Iraq is scheduled to hold a referendum by July 30 on the accord, which calls for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops by the end of 2011. If the accord is rejected, the U.S. would have to withdraw from Iraq within a year of the vote or by the summer of 2010. Some U.S. officials fear that would be before Iraq's security forces can protect the country on their own. The status of forces agreement calls for the U.S. to train Iraqi forces in specialized areas such as aviation and intelligence-gathering and to step to the side as Iraqi forces take control of their communities. White House officials didn't respond to requests for comment. Al-Maliki's office, Iraq's deputy prime minister and the foreign minister didn't answer calls seeking comment. With tensions rising again in major Iraqi cities, al-Maliki feared that "if you add (the photos) to that mix, it could very easily provide an incentive to the extremists" to stir violence, a State Department official said. Obama was told the photos' release would trigger more violence, U.S. officials say. Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC 2009-06-02 |
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