Asia-Pacific

Obama says he won't release bin Laden photos

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-05-05 04:22

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Wednesday he has decided not to release death photos of terrorist Osama bin Laden because their graphic nature could incite violence and create national security risks for the United States.

"There's no doubt we killed Osama bin Laden," the president said in an interview with CBS News, and there was no need to release the photographs or gloat.

The president said that for anyone who does not believe bin Laden is dead, "we don't think that a photograph in and of itself is going to make any difference."

"There are going to be some folks who deny it. The fact of the matter is you won't see bin Laden walking on this earth again," said Obama.

The president made his comments in an interview Wednesday with CBS television's "60 Minutes". Presidential spokesman Jay Carney read the president's quotes to reporters in the White House briefing room, ahead of the program's airing.

Photos taken by the Navy SEAL raiders show bin Laden shot in the head, numerous officials have said. CIA Director Leon Panetta said Tuesday he expected at least one photo to be released. Asked about that, Carney said the decision had not been made at that time.

But Carney also said the president never doubted his position on not releasing the photos. Obama said in the interview, "It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence."

"I think that, given the graphic nature of these photos, it would create some national security risk," he said.

Carney said there would not be images released of bin Laden's burial at sea, either.

Some family members of those who died in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks thought it important to document bin Laden's death, as did some skeptics in the Arab world who doubted his demise in the absence of convincing evidence. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican, said in a statement that Obama's decision was a mistake.

"The whole purpose of sending our soldiers into the compound, rather than an aerial bombardment, was to obtain indisputable proof of bin Laden's death," Graham said. "I know bin Laden is dead. But the best way to protect and defend our interests overseas is to prove that fact to the rest of the world."

But many other lawmakers and others expressed concerns that the photographic images could be seen as a "trophy" that would inflame US critics and make it harder for members of the American military deployed overseas to do their jobs.