The Pentagon on February 5 released 198 photographs showing abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of them with close-ups of cuts and bruises on their arms and legs.
The Pentagon said the photos came from investigations into 56 allegations of misconduct by U.S. personnel. It said 14 of those allegations were substantiated and led to disciplinary action against 65 U.S. service members, including life imprisonment.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit more than a decade ago for the photos. It said the images were part of a larger collection of 2,000 mostly unreleased photographs showing abuse.
"The still-secret pictures are the best evidence of the serious abuses that took place in military detention centers," said ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer. "The government's selective disclosure risks misleading the public about the true extent of the abuse."
The released photos, while graphic, were unlikely to have the same impact as the images depicting abuse of Abu Ghraib detainees that emerged in 2004.
Some prisoners there claimed they endured sexual abuse, infliction of electric shocks, and mock executions.