Pentagon ordered to release Abu Ghraib prison photos

The U.S. Department of Defense (Pentagon) must release a cache of photos, part of which had already been published, showing how Army personnel violated human rights when torturing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, a federal court ruled on Wednesday.

The Federal Court defended its decision to release the photos stating it was the right and appropriate thing to do and that they had to share the photos, which depict the mistreatment prisoners faced at the hands of American soldiers in Abu Ghraib in 2004, with the general public.

The now infamous American soldier Lynndie England, who served 3 years in prison after she was convicted for torturing and mistreating prisoners, was unrepentant, saying, "Why would I regret what I've done?" after confessing while in prison that there exists 800 additional photos. In the book titled "Tortured", an authorized biography of England, she was recorded as saying: "They would have tortured us 20 times worse, why would I be sorry? I'm not guilty, I was only doing my job. I have 800 additional photos. If I publish them, the White House will shake."

Up until now, only 198 photos from Abu Ghuraib have been published out of approximately 2000 that are thought to exist. The photos are being kept at the U.S. Congress archives and, thus far, the date for their publication remains undetermined.

The Abu Ghuraib prison, which was finally closed in April of 2014, came into the spotlight following the U.S.'s occupation of Iraq in 2003 after it became known that American soldiers routinely tortured and raped Iraqi prisoners. In a statement given to the press at the time, Iraqi Justice Minister Hasan Al-Shummari said that closing what has now become Baghdad Center Prison and moving those kept there to other prisons in the area was an attempt to avoid publishing the photos in question.