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As I’ve noted previously, I believe it is wrong for the Obama administration to restrict the release of a another batch of images of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison. Court rulings have cleared the way for the released of the images, which were collected during the military’s investigation of the Abu Ghraib scandal. But President Obama has refused to have the images released, saying they might inflame enemies and thus put Americans at risk. The New York Times weighs in today with an article that looks back to when the Nixon administration tried to stop the release of the Pentagon Papers because of potential harm that might happen to Americans. A secret history of the Vietnam War, the Pentagon Papers contained images of U.S. atrocities, and the Nixon administration argued that their release might inflame enemies and caused added danger to American troops. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that such danger was a vague potential, not immediate and concrete  The documents were released. The comparisons to the current controversy about the Abu Ghraib images is fascinating.–David Schonauer