Obama changes mind on release of ‘detainee abuse photographs’

Big news from Jake Tapper:

President Obama met with White House counsel Greg Craig and other members of the White House counsel team last week and told them that he had second thoughts about the decision to hand over photographs of detainee abuse to the ACLU, per a judge’s order, and had changed his mind.

The president “believes their release would endanger our troops,” a White House official says, adding that the president “believes that the national security implications of such a release have not been fully presented to the court.”

At the end of that meeting, the president directed Craig to object to the immediate release of the photos on those grounds. In an Oval Office meeting with Iraq Commander General Ray Odierno, the president told him of his decision to argue against the release of the photographs.

Bill Kristol predicted yesterday that this would happen, after reading remarks made at the daily WH press briefing by Robert Gibbs.

Lorie Byrd makes great point here (via MM):

“I don’t understand how Obama argues that these pictures would endanger the troops, but that the “torture memos” he released did not. I have to wonder if he now believes he should not have released those memos. If he does regret it, is it because of national security concerns or politics?”

Whatever the reasons, I’m glad he did it. Hardcore Bush-hating leftists across the country are no doubt freaking out right now (examples here), which is another indicator that his reversal in position was the right move.

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