U.S. tries to block release of bin Laden pics

Pakistan army soldiers rest near the house where it is believed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden lived in Abbottabad, Pakistan on Monday, May 2, 2011. / AP Photo

WASHINGTON - Public disclosure of graphic photos and video taken of Osama bin Laden after U.S. commandos killed him would damage national security and lead to attacks on American property and personnel, the Obama administration contends in court documents.

In a response late Monday to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group seeking the imagery, Justice Department attorneys said the CIA has found 52 photographs and video recordings of the May 1 operation in Pakistan.

They argued the images of the deceased bin Laden are classified and are being withheld from the public to avoid inciting violence against Americans overseas and compromising secret systems and techniques used by the CIA and the military.

The Justice Department has asked the court to dismiss Judicial Watch's lawsuit because the records the group wants are "wholly exempt from disclosure," according to the filing.

Photos: The killing of Osama bin Laden
Complete coverage: The killing of Osama bin Laden

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, accused the Obama administration of making a "political decision" to keep the bin Laden imagery secret. "We shouldn't throw out our transparency laws because complying with them might offend terrorists," Fitton said in a statement. "The historical record of Osama bin Laden's death should be released to the American people as the law requires."

The Associated Press has filed Freedom of Information Act requests to review a range of materials, such as contingency plans for bin Laden's capture, reports on the performance of equipment during the assault on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and copies of DNA tests confirming the al Qaeda leader's identity. The AP also has asked for video and photographs taken from the mission, including photos made of bin Laden after he was killed.

The Obama administration refused AP's request to consider quickly its request for the records. AP appealed the decision, arguing that unnecessary bureaucratic delays harm the public interest and allow anonymous U.S. officials to selectively leak details of the mission. Without expedited processing, requests for sensitive materials can be delayed for months and even years. The AP submitted its request to the Pentagon less than one day after bin Laden's death.

In a declaration included in the documents, John Bennett, director of the CIA's National Clandestine Service, said many of the photos and video recordings are "quite graphic, as they depict the fatal bullet wound to (bin Laden) and other similarly gruesome images of his corpse." Images were taken of bin Laden's body at the Abbottabad compound, where he was killed by a Navy SEAL team, and during his burial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson, Bennett said.

"The public release of the responsive records would provide terrorist groups and other entities hostile to the United States with information to create propaganda which, in turn, could be used to recruit, raise funds, inflame tensions, or rally support for causes and actions that reasonably could be expected to result in exceptionally grave damage to both the national defense and foreign relations of the United States," Bennett wrote.

Navy Adm. William McRaven, the top officer at U.S. Special Operations Command, said in a separate declaration that releasing the imagery could put the special operations team that carried out the assault on bin Laden's compound at risk by making them "more readily identifiable in the future."

Before his current assignment, McRaven led the Joint Special Operations Command, the organization in charge of the military specialized counterterrorism units.

[TWONPOO]

you cant exactly release something that doesnt exist. i dont buy that the u.s. killed laden at all.

[mjlewis6]

Guess I will have to be content with wearing a Bin Ladin T-shirt that declares GOATS are Safe in Pakistan: cartoon of a cross-eyed Goat and Bin Ladin gripping it from behind...

Surely Al Qaeda would not want to bomb us for making Pakistan safer...???

Yeah, the photos would be gruesome. No more so than Pam Am 103 in Lockerbie Scotland....I would send a BUNCH of Marines into Libya for Gadaffi now....and give him similar treatment on the sands of the desert.

But the man at the top is the President and I respect his decision, much as the birther movement is stuck in racism.
We have a leader. I put up with Bush/Cheney for 8 years....surely you guys can handle FOUR!! I am voting for OBAMA because HE GOT OSAMA...something George refused to do.

[mjlewis6]

By the by....I am Scottish, Irish, German and American Indian...and Catholic to boot. So if birthers want to qualify Americans to vote, I am the anti-monarchist our Founding Fathers wanted in the public to fight wars to defend the republic....from enemies both foreign and DOMESTIC. In order to mantain our liberties...we occasionally have to boot the leadership for what they do to us. TOO bad there is little we can do about the Supreme Court...We had to fight a CIVIL WAR due to the DRED SCOTT decision by a unanimous decision. Let's not fight another civil war over the criminal acts of the Bush Administration actors but surrender them to the ICC at the Hague and stop this racist mongering by one political party to distract from the harm the BUSH/CHENEY Administration did to this country in 8 years. Obama put that aside to work on the collapsed economy that Republican Congressional control handed Americans...surely we can come together to repair our nation?

[mooring7]

What I would find seriously offensive is the release of the photos during the presidential campaign. While I do not oppose the release of the photos I do oppose the use of the photo's as a campaign tactic. Let the President run on the issues and his decision to eliminate Bin Laden.If Obama's current position is not to show the photos then it should remain unchanged. If there is a proven right to publish then release the photos at some later date after the election. The idea of standards and practices in the media the name of decency has long since been put aside so I dont see that as being an issue, there will be a debate regarding service of interest of the American public and that will be a significant debate.I do remain opposed to not publishing the photos out of fear or the suggestion of retaliation by terrorists, we are not doing enough to convince the world that the attacks on the US past and future will result in a devastating retaliation on our attackers or those who support them in any way.

[mooring7]

I saw people jumping from windows on 911. Unspeakable and nor will I describe conditions on the ground just after the 2nd plane hit.Photographs were released of the Trade center and the Pentagon victims and the firey ruins of flt.93. The idea of not releasing a photograph of the slain Bin Laden because it will evoke a terrorist attack should then be applied to America and Americans. We have 3000 slain martyrs and we worry about what Al Queda will do next.The entire world shouild be worried about what we will do next. This country has degraded itself over the past 40 years into a flock of nervous sheep.There is no appeasing the Jihadist Muslim terroists. Fear them not respect them not. The world has gone mad with pluralism and political correctness and our enimies take full advantage. We are living under a rock in the belief that if we dont bother them the wont bother us.Its amazing how we are civil to people who openly state their intention to destroy us. Pakistan claims we cant exist without them. They harbored Bin Laden and we havent laid a glove on them. We have been attacked on our own soil! And the very idea of revenge has been diminished to a slow moving high fatality of US military personell low level war. Stop appeasing non Americans and get this job done right. Superpower ????? wake up!

[ticobird]

The Justice Department is correct not to release the photos.

Conspiracy theorists and various other people with widely differing agendas are apoplectic about this matter but no good will be served by releasing any material relating to Osama Bin Laden's death.

[Thomasgolfer]

Photos the government refuses to release:
911 Pentagon photos
Iraq torture photos
Bin Laden photos

see a pattern?

[fedup12]

That being said... I would like to see them.

If it could be done safely. Without it being plastered over NBC, CBS and Fox.

It was finally closure after 9/11

[DrKnowe]

If it could "be done safely. Without it being plastered over NBC, CBS and Fox. "

So, basically if they came out and showed you the pictures personally..

[fedup12]

Is this the same Birther Group?

But this time it could get people killed.

But they dont care as long as there is any chance... No matter how small.... to get at Obama.

[gadfly65]

I'm sure Mr. Fitton undsestands the consequences but just doesn't care; conservatives would like nothing more than to manufacture more conflict that they can falsely pin on the president.

[Thomasgolfer]

Interviews with neighbors all say that one helicopter landed and took Bin laden alive and that the helicopter blew up killing everyone. Is that the "real" truth and that Seal team 6 died that night? Or is the truth what the us government say's, that bin laden was killed and dumped in the sea, then a week later, Seal team 6 died in a helicopter from enemy fire? I'd have to go with the neighbors as everything the gov. has said about bin laden has been lies. He was just another boogie man to scare the populace.

[memphispiano]

I am a conservative Republican. I do NOT like Obama at all.
BUT...America may well go done in history as "FREEDOM GONE AMUCK". Sometimes, we have to have the sense to balance our freedoms with securities. I have absolutely NO problem with losing a little freedom of privacy in order to protect my security. And I certainly do NOT have to see the pictures of a dead Osama Bin Laden if it means risk to our security. Common sense says there are things we cannot know everything the government is doing. If the government has published all the plans for the Normandy invasion ahead of the event, it would not have worked. Duh! And sometimes keeping things secret after the fact protects us in the future. IF the release of these documents would cause security problems, then Obama is right on this one.

[dudley58]

I am a liberal Democrat, and I must say VERY WELL SAID! - and surprising as well. I also must say that Obama has not been right on everything he has done, but he is absolutely right on this one. You are also correct in saying that Americans do NOT need to know everything their government is doing. Sometimes I listen to the news and shake my head at the information given, thinking "Wow...how nice of us to let our enemies know that!"
Thanks again for your post.

[TWONPOO]

i am neither a republican nor democrat. i am also not a paid troll like most of the people posting on here. i think america is the new nazi germany. america is the last place to find freedom, or security. america is officially a rogue state. laden photos cant be released because there are no photos, and there was no assasination.