CBS News reports:
In an interview with Steve Kroft for this Sunday’s 60 Minutes, President Obama says he won’t release post-mortem images of Osama bin Laden taken to prove his death.
Republican House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said Wednesday that the Obama administration should not release the gruesome post-The killing of Osama bin Ladenmortem images, saying it could complicate the job for American troops overseas. Rogers told CBS News he has seen a post-mortem photo.
“The risks of release outweigh the benefits,” he said. “Conspiracy theorists around the world will just claim the photos are doctored anyway, and there is a real risk that releasing the photos will only serve to inflame public opinion in the Middle East.”
“Imagine how the American people would react if Al Qaida killed one of our troops or military leaders, and put photos of the body on the internet,” he continued. “Osama bin Laden is not a trophy – he is dead and let’s now focus on continuing the fight until Al Qaida has been eliminated.”
The debate over whether or not to release the image was based on some Internet-based skeptics who openly wondered about conspiracies and those who were concerned that the image would inflame anti-American sentiment in a world of extremists. A similar debate has arisen over the alleged existence of video footage of bin Laden’s somewhat controversial burial at sea. That video has not yet been release.
NBC News’ Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie appeared to both break the decision via Twitter that President Obama has decided NOT to release photos of Osama bin Laden’s corpse. This is somewhat of a surprising development given the great amount of buzz yesterday that the White House WOULD be releasing the photos. This report runs counter to CIA Chief Leon Panetta yesterday telling NBC News anchor Brian Williams that the photo would in fact be released.
Watch the first broadcast report of the decision by Andrea Mitchell, courtesy of MSNBC:
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