White House Press Corps.org: Hopeless To Appeal? - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 4/24/09

Daily adventures with the

White House Press Corps

in their own words

Hopeless To Appeal? - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 4/24/09
— Wednesday, April 29, 2009 —

1 comments

Q Robert, on the issue of the release of photos of -- photos being released of abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, two questions. One, can you explain why those are going to be released?

MR. GIBBS: Sure.

Q And secondly -- well, let's start with that.

MR. GIBBS: Sure. The Second Circuit Court ruled in December of 2008 that the photos had to be released. The previous administration lost a court case on that. The Department of Justice decided based on the ruling that it was hopeless to appeal, and a mandate ordering the release of those photos came Monday. And the administration, the Pentagon, and the court entered into an agreement to release those photos.

So this is part of the very same case that OLC memos were derived from. This was a court case based on information that was compelled to be released.

Q So did this administration think that it was out of legal options, it had no more recourse, or did it decide it was time to release those?

MR. GIBBS: I'll double-check. Specifically on the second part of that, I know that the Department of Justice determined specifically based on the ruling that they were not likely to be successful.

Q And more big picture, just one last one. When these are released, are you concerned at all that that's going to be another version of the debate we've had here for the last week of a lot of looking back, looking back to the Bush administration and that time?

MR. GIBBS: Well, again -- again, this was -- this was largely compelled by a court decision than this is -- there are going to be actions that -- many actions that are out of our control. But I think the President believes that -- the President believes that, as I've said throughout this process, that it is important to look forward and not to look backward, and that's the posture that he'll continue to take.

Labels: Department of Justice, Interrogation, Obama Administration, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, War on Terror, White House Press Corps

>> Full Story

Posted by White House Press Corps @ 2:15 PM

1 Comments:

At 1:57 AM, Monica said...: The press corp is a joke, and Mr.Gieb is mentally challenged. He is inarticulate, ill humored, and boring. The press corp makes be blush of embarrassment to watch. I come from a communist country I hope I will not die in one. Shame on the press secretary, shame on the press corp.