Telegraph.uk 13 May 2009
Just weeks after announcing he would make the images public, administration officials said the president had told his legal advisers that releasing the photos would endanger troops.
The change of heart is thought to have come after senior military officials gave warning the release could cause a backlash against troops.
CIA ignored warnings from US soldiers that torture and extreme stress would not workMr Obama now wants the issue to go back to court, although federal appeals judges have already ruled the photos should be released.
The proposed release of the photographs had threatened to reignite the scandal surrounding Abu Ghraib prison in 2004.
It came after a legal action by the American Civil Liberties Union and followed a political firestorm over alleged torture of detainees under President George W. Bush.
The images relate to more than 400 separate cases involving alleged prisoner abuse between 2001 and 2005.
