So much for transparency

So, should the photos depicting the abuse of detainees be released?
President Obama decided to appeal a court decision authorizing their release, following a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the ACLU
(for an interesting discussion of the issue, try Dan Froomkin’s piece).
What is disappointing is that we thought we had entered a new era last January, and that transparency, after eight years of secrecy and dissimulation, was now the order of the day.
Instead, Obama has chosen to parrot the previous administration’s arguments that revealing detainee abuse would inflame anti-American sentiment abroad, and put US troops in harm’s way.
Yet, what, in fact, should we find objectionable: the release of the pictures, or what they contain?
It is the behavior so graphically recorded that is unacceptable and despicable. It is that lack of restraint, that contempt for human dignity that is unconscionable and so deeply disturbing and dismaying…That is what has been so harmful to America’s image and reputation abroad. The damage has already been done, at Abu Ghraib, naturally, but also at Guantanamo, Bagram, Falluja, to name but the most notorious places…
Perhaps the only way that America’s standing can be restored is not by concealing the scurrilous actions of a former administration, but for the new US president to seize the high ground and release all the photos, all the memos, for the entire world to see.
It would signal that a new day has indeed dawned in America, and that unlawful, unethical behavior not only will no longer be tolerated, but also publicly exposed and prosecuted.
The best way, the only way to protect America’s reputation and armed forces abroad is for America to convince the world that it does indeed believe in justice, and that it will not hesitate to expose and prosecute its own, even if the latter happen to be former senior officials...