Former President Jimmy Carter said today that he disagrees with President Obama’s decision to keep under wraps photos of detainee abuse.
Carter said he thought the photos should be released and probably would not harm American troops because America’s image in the world couldn’t get much worse.
“I think it’s hard to realize how much anger there already is based on the revelations that have already been made,” Carter told CNN’s Campbell Brown.
“And any knowledgeable person within the Arab world or around the rest of the countries on Earth know that these pictures exist,” Carter added. “They can now only imagine how bad they are, and maybe the actual publication of them wouldn’t exacerbate an already bad situation.”
At the same time, Carter said he would not criticize Obama’s decision because the President must deal with the potential consequences.
“I don’t agree with him, but I certainly don’t criticize him for making that decision,” Carter said.
Carter demurred on whether the U.S. should prosecute the architects of enhanced interrogation policies, but called for a “complete examination” of what happened.
“Prosecuting is too strong a world,” Carter said. “What I would like to see is a complete examination of what did happen, the identification of any perpetrators of crimes against our own laws or against international law…And then after all that’s done, decide whether or not there should be any prosecutions.”