New York ? Suggesting the government was acting as if it had something to hide, a federal judge Wednesday gave Washington one month to release records related to the treatment of prisoners in Iraq.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein chastised officials for moving at a “glacial pace” in responding to nearly year-old Freedom of Information Act requests from the American Civil Liberties Union and four other watchdog organizations.

“If the documents are more of an embarrassment than a secret, the public should know of our government’s treatment of individuals captured and held abroad,” Hellerstein wrote. “We are a nation that strives to value the dignity of all humanity.”

Hellerstein said though the government had raised “important issues” of national security as a reason for the delays, “merely raising national security concerns cannot justify unlimited delay.”

Jameel Jaffer, an ACLU lawyer, was heartened by the action.

“Increasingly, the administration’s response to requests has been to stonewall or delay as long as possible until documents are forced out of them by a court,” he said.

Also Wednesday, The Washington Post learned that an Army colonel investigating Pfc. Lynndie R. England’s involvement in detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison has recommended that the soldier face a general court-martial on 17 counts of abuse and indecent acts, though the officer cited England’s youth and impressionability as possible explanations for her role in the alleged crimes.

Col. Denise J. Arn — who presided over England’s pretrial hearings last month at Fort Bragg, N.C. — wrote in a Sept. 6 report that she also recommends dropping two counts of assault on detainees and another blanket charge of “maltreatment and cruelty.” If convicted on the remaining charges, some of which show England engaged in sex acts with another soldier, England could face 37 years in prison.

Arn noted that England, 21, responded “without hesitation, to the suggestions of other, older soldiers in the group,” according to a copy of the report obtained by The Washington Post.

“It does not escape notice that Pfc. England was one of the younger participants, if not the youngest, in the incidents that gave rise to the allegations against her,” Arn wrote. “From my review of the evidence, it is apparent that Pfc. England was, at the time of the offenses, the kind of person who was easily led.”

A spokesman for the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg said Arn had submitted the report to her superiors. Gen. John R. Vines ultimately will decide what, if any, charges against England should proceed to a court-martial.