Congress Passes a Law Promoting Gov Secrecy

Without transparency, citizens cannot keep their government honest. That's why I was surprised at a recent news story: "Photographs documenting US military abuse of detainees overseas will likely remain secret under a new law passed by Congress." See here. 

Congress essentially passed a law to circumvent a federal appellate court decision. That court ordered the government to release the photos to the ACLU (pursuant to the FOIA). 

Basically, our own government is withholding relevant information relating to the war on terrorism. But if we, the taxpayers, paid for it, we deserve to see the consequences of it (Note: common sense tells us these photographs contain no significant security secrets). 

Bottom line: don't sugarcoat something for me--I want to see all the results of my taxpayer contributions, good or bad. Tell me to wear a seatbelt, tell me where I can't smoke, but if you're spending my tax dollars killing other people and getting my fellow citizen-soldiers killed, I want to see the results. Doesn't that sounds fair? 

Update on December 1, 2009: Sadly, the U.S. Supreme Court has approved the withholding of detainee pictures. See here.