BULLETIN - AT 3:22 P.M. ET:  President Obama has made a correct decision involving national security that will infuriate the lunatic fringe of his party.  From The New York Times:

President Obama is seeking to block the release of photographs that depict American military personnel abusing captives in Iraq and Afghanistan, his spokesman said Wednesday, fearing the images could spark a hostile backlash against United States troops.

“The president reflected on this case and believes they have the potential to pose harm to our troops,” Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said Wednesday afternoon.

The action reverses Mr. Obama's earlier statement that he agreed with a Pentagon decision to release the photos, with no further legal appeal, following a federal court judgment calling for them to be released.  The president's new policy implies that the court order will be appealed, possibly up to the Supreme Court.

The original case demanding release was brought, natch, by the American Civil Liberties Union, a group that is, to civil liberties, what Britney Spears is to virtue. 

Releasing these photos now would be an outrage.  The behavior depicted was inappropriate and humiliating to prisoners.  Everyone, including the American military, agrees on that.  But the conditions have been corrected and the offending personnel have been punished.  To release these photos would inflame the Muslim world and act as a major recruiting tool for our enemies.  It would make it difficult, if not impossible, for some governments, possibly including the government of Pakistan, to work with us.  It would, of course, also provide fodder for the leftist fifth column in our own country.

We are at war.  Photos like this can safely be released after a war is successfully concluded.  But we do not help an enemy in wartime, and that's what a release would do.  The court decision was made by a federal appeals judge, so the case can now be appealed directly to the Supreme Court, seeking reversal.  Do it.

May 13, 2009