Obama's Tortured Turn

In the darkest days of the Bush/Cheney years Barack Obama declared, "Making government accountable to the people isn't just a cause of this campaign--it's been a cause of my life for two decades." No one expected Obama to reveal all the secrets of the temple when he became president. But Americans did expect him to favor transparency and accountability. Unfortunately, with each passing week he stumbles deeper into the thicket of secrecy he promised to clear away.

The administration's reversal of its agreement with the ACLU to release photos of detainee abuse by military and intelligence agents is unsettling and wrongheaded. Obama now argues, as his predecessor did, that revealing the truth "will further inflame anti-American opinion" and potentially endanger US troops. But this logic assumes that anger at the United States is provoked by photos--not the crimes they depict or the impunity they imply. Have these crimes been fully investigated and the perpetrators held accountable? Have adequate steps been taken to put an end to such abuses?

Answering these questions affirmatively and conclusively would be the best way to improve America's standing in the world. As the ACLU's Anthony Romero suggests, "Only by looking squarely in the mirror, acknowledging the crimes of the past and achieving accountability can we move forward and ensure that these atrocities are not repeated." Obama has asserted that this reckoning has already taken place, that the people involved "have been identified, and appropriate actions have been taken." But we can only gauge the veracity of his claim through a public airing of all the files on detainee abuse. The administration's stonewalling, however, breeds suspicion that justice and accountability are still out of reach.

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