Federal Appeals Court: Government can withhhold detainee IDs

Brace for the exploding heads over at Daily Kos. Earlier today a federal appeals court ruled that the U.S. government can keep the identities of its detainees secret.

The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan reversed a lower court judge regarding eight files containing records documenting allegations of detainee abuse by military personnel and documents containing reports of allegations of detainee-against-detainee abuse.

The misconduct alleged to have been carried out by military personnel included spraying detainees with water hoses, striking them, using pepper spray against them and splashing them with cleaning products.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court found that the detainees and their families have a privacy interest in their identifying information. The government had argued that the detainees faced possible harm if their identities were revealed.

The appeals court said that The Associated Press, which sought the identities, had not shown how the public interest would be served by disclosing them.

Gee, the Associated Press?

Courtesy of Newsbusters, some of the AP's recent hits include:

• Chicago Homicides Exceed U.S. Iraq Deaths: Not News
• The Associated Press Chronicles 'Guerrilla Warrior' Castro's 'Push to Power'
• AP Cries That People Are Mean to Barack
• AP Attacks Gov. Palin Even in Birth Announcement of Grandson
• For Zimbabweans, A Cow Dung Christmas; AP Still Partially Deflects Blame from Mugabe

The news isn't all bad for the AP. Though they just got shot down by the Appeals Court and the dying newspaper business is melting away revenues, the AP did just save 15% on their car insurance at GEICO.