Back and Forth

By Alex Gibney

I just read the blog of fellow Atlantic correspondent Lane Wallace, in which she raised important issues about photographs and quibbled with my digs at semioticians in a blog I wrote about photos of detainee abuse. She notes that photographs will be interpreted differently by different people.

As it happens, I agree.

But that does not mean that we should allow our government to withhold the release of the photos. We can't interpret photos if we can't see them.

Another key point: most, if not all, of the photos that the ACLU is asking to be released are not photos of Abu Ghraib at all. They are photos from other US-controlled prisons. Therefore, these photos may have quite a bit to say about whether there was a worldwide policy of detainee abuse.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2009/06/back-and-forth/19153/