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Was it really common sense ? .. or was it the threat of violating the Geneva Conventions ?

I’ll go with the latter

have to admit, Obama is sure doing a hell of a job making Bush look better and better every day. at this rate he’ll make ol’ George look like a genius by this time next year.

at this rate he’ll make ol’ George look like a genius by this time next year.

Heh.

That happened before 3pm on January 20, 2009.

Thank God that President Obama is showing some common sense on this. What was he thinking even considering releasing these photos while our troops are over there still engaged in conflict? He should have told the ACLU to take a hike right from the beginning and fought it tooth and nail. He is not a lawyer anymore. He is the president of the United States and it is his duty to start acting like it and protecting the people of the United States and her soldiers. Lets hope he can keep his head on straight and do the right thing the next time around. Maybe some of our prayers are working for him after all.

There are many arms guiding the democrat party and they all have a chokehold on the dems. The unions, the environmentalists, the animal rights people, the ACLU, the trial lawyers and never forget ACORN. In trying to appease these groups they are stopping all progress. Also dem members of congress with their graft and corruption. All of these groups are working diligently to destroy the economy of the United States and succeeding very well.

I was a child during the Great Depression and it was horrible. My father was a master electrician but he he to go to New York City and work as a bus boy in a restaurant and leave his family with my mother’s parents. Luckily my grandfater was a locomotive engineer and he worked 2 days a week. Otherwise we would have all starved.

Obama is much like Clinton, stick your finger in the air and find out which way the poliitcal wind is blowing and act accordingly. I do not read any common sense into his decision but a ton of politics. It is a real travesty that this had to go this far. Thank God Pelosi was such an idiot to lie about what she knew.

He was for the release of the photos before he was against it.

Flip Flopper!

I don’t think that this was Obama’s idea to switch course on this decision, which Robert Gibbs just got done saying in the WH press conference today. I think he got a phone call from a high ranking military officer, or perhaps Dick Cheney, one or t’other.

According to Gibbs, Obama hadn’t seen the photos yet in April. NOW, he’s seen them and HE went to the lawyers (or whoever) and said “hey, guys, I don’t think this is a good idea to show these…you know, national security issues and putting the troops in harms way and all”. Right. Obama, the military strategy expert in action.

Or, maybe the photos weren’t as inflammatory as he’d hoped, and would have been a wet blanket (no pun intended) on his supporters’ mantra, “Bush condoned torture!” and, “Waterboarding is torture!”, etc. Hmmm, one wonders.

By the way, did anyone catch the press conference with Gibbs and saw him confiscate the cell phone from one of the reporters because it kept ringing? That’s a whole topic of conversation in itself. I’m thinking this topic on the photos put Gibbs a little on the touchy (angry) side myself.

So what is the real reason Hussein is doing (or not doing) this? Concern about national security is laughable. Clearly there is a personal point here– something which will either harm or benefit the Messiah. It’s just a matter of figuring out what it is.

@SoCal Chris said: ” I think he got a phone call from a high ranking military officer, or perhaps Dick Cheney”

Wouldn’t you just LOVE to hear a phone call from Dick Cheney to Obama?

@Mike’s America:
Kind of evokes memories of the scene in ‘Guarding Tess’ when Nicolas Cage, as Doug Chesnic, received a angry phone call from the President with a rebuke about the job Chesnic was doing whilst Doug was sitting on the pot, eh? 😉

Now this makes no sense. If he were so all fired concerned about perception endangering our troops, he would have simply refused the ACLU FOIA request for the interrogation techniques… just as he is rightfully doing with the photos. But now, by refusing to release them, he adds fuel to the fire when he says viewing them may endanger our troops. That gives the impression they are another, or perhaps worse, Abu Ghraib.

Nice going… can you say too little, too late?

I’m all for not releasing them, but they should just say they are classified… period. Not add the BS about the endangering troops bit.

@MataHarley: Concern for our troops only became a problem when the political cost of releasing these photos became clear.

They could have refused to release them earlier and pursue the final legal remedy, but they gave in to the lefties demands.

Does anyone else think the handling of this indicates an INCOMPETENT President?

@Mike’s America:

Oh, he’s incompetent, but he’s also cunning. Not intelligent, cunning. I think OLDPUPPYMAX is right, he did this flip for other reasons. He had a lot more to lose by releasing these photos than not, and maybe it’s possible that he didn’t realize that until very recently.

OR, the decision could be upheld in appeals, and the photos get released, but he appears to be distanced from it. OR, they’re being held until he comes back from his Egypt Apology Tour in June because their release now could put him in harm’s way over there.

I don’t really know for sure, but the trust factor in his decision making is simply non existent where I’m concerned.

@kozanne: Obie knew earlier when he said he would release the photos about the damage they would cause.

I have trouble believing that was his motivation now.

Old Puppy Max is correct. There is another reason and it’s entirely political.

Interesting little blurb in this McClatchy article:

The timing of the president’s decision suggests that a key factor behind his switch of position could have been a desire to prevent the release of the photos before a speech that he’s to give June 4 in Egypt aimed at convincing the world’s Muslims that the United States isn’t at war with them. The pictures’ release shortly before the speech could have negated its goal and proved highly embarrassing. Even if courts ultimately reject Obama’s new position, the time needed for their consideration could delay the photos’ release until long after the speech.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/68103.html

And, by the way:

Obama Considers Detaining Terror Suspects Indefinitely

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124223286506515765.html

Just get back and I get stuck in the filter already.

…[aimed at convincing the world’s Muslims that the United States isn’t at war with them.]

As if almost the entirety of President Bush’s Presidency with him saying time and time again, that we are not at war with Muslims isn’t enough, Mr. Obama? That, in fact, he said we were/are at war with Islamofascists, over and over and over again. Sheesh.