Defense Department To Release Additional Abu Ghraib-esque Photographs

I think this is unnecessary and almost surely detrimental. The costs far outweigh the benefits. Talk about recruiting tools for al qaeda! You might as well go ahead and print off the pamphlet for the poor bastards. Stories of these transgressions that spread by word of mouth are far less reliable of a tool for recruitment than physical evidence which will surely be disseminated through every news outlet in the Arab world, and in some cases for weeks on end.

The photos, examined by Air Force and Army criminal investigators, are apparently not as shocking as those taken at Abu Ghraib, which became a symbol of U.S. mistakes in Iraq. But Defense Department officials nevertheless are concerned that the release could incite another backlash in the Middle East.