Debate rages on over releasing bin Laden images

Even after President Obama announced yesterday his decision not to release post-mortem pictures of Osama bin Laden, the debate rages on as to whether or not that choice was the right one - with voices on both sides of the aisle alternately praising the president's call and urging him to change his mind.

Mr. Obama, who announced his decisionin an interview taped with CBS News' "60 Minutes" on Wednesday, explained his fear that, if released, the images might incite violence or be used as propaganda.

"We don't trot out this stuff as trophies," Mr. Obama said. "It is important 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 or as a propaganda tool."

Nevertheless, a number of political figures and commentators have objected to this reasoning, arguing that the release of the photos is inevitable - and that putting the images out now would both serve as definitive proof of bin Laden's death, and provide families affected by the 9/11 attacks with a sense of closure.

"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," said Rep. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) in a statement, noting that he thought the decision not to release them was "a mistake."

"I know bin Laden is dead," Graham said. "But the best way to protect and defend our interests overseas is to prove that fact to the rest of the world."

"For me it's about closure," said Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.) in Thursday appearance on CBS News' "The Early Show." "It's about the American people, people that got struck that day, people that had friends and family... about guys like me that did multiple tours overseas after 9/11, because of 9/11."

"I want to see the dead body," he added. "I want to see the fruits of our labor, of my long absences, of my long hours overseas, of my sleepless nights, of Afghanistan, of all the things I've been through."

Hunter argued, too, that contrary to Mr. Obama's fears, releasing the photos was unlikely to provoke extremists to further violence.

"We're already in as much danger as we're going to be in. It's not like the extremist Muslim radicals are going to all of a sudden say, we aren't going to go suicide bombing today, because they did not release those photos," he said. "We're always going to face that. We should not curb our first amendment rights because of what some crazy people might do."

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), also speaking on the "Early Show," countered that Americans should trust Mr. Obama's judgment - and that showing the photos would not necessarily do much to convince skeptics of bin Laden's death.

"I think at some point we have to trust the president and trust the military leaders to say, you know, these photos won't add anything," he said. "This notion that we're going to end some kind of conspiratorial debate, I think we've learned in recent years that conspiracies have a life of their own. There are still crazies who stand outside this site and claim that president Bush knocked down the twin towers. So I don't think it does anything to end any kind of conspiracy."

Noting that "there is no first amendment right to see a gruesome picture that might inflame passions overseas," Weiner added that releasing the pictures was simply not worth the risk of retaliation. "If it even endangers one military life, one intelligence officer overseas then the president is right to make that decision."

In a press conference on Wednesday, House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) agreed that, because there was "absolute proof that Osama bin Laden" was the person who was killed in the raid, "I don't think there's any necessity to release the picture."

But beyond the question of whether or not the government should release the photos is the possibility that the images will find their way into the public regardless. The Associated Press on Monday filed a request for the photos (as well as video of the raid taken by military personnel) through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) - and there is ever the possibility of a leak.

Some wonder whether or not it would be better for the White House to release the photos now in order to maintain control of the narrative.

CBS News' senior national security analyst Juan Zarate said he thought the White House made the "right decision" in withholding the photos, but that ultimately, the choice might come back to haunt the administration.

"The problem is, in the age of WikiLeaks, the image, I think, at some point is going to get out," he said on the "Early Show." "This issue won't go away simply because we say we're not going to put images out. And so I think controlling that message is ultimately an important factor. But I think at this moment, the president made the right call."

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani expressed a similar argument, but to a different end: "The pictures are eventually going to get out and then you are going to relive all the intensity of this a month from now or two months from now or three months from now," he said. "Why not put them out now and satisfy at least the rational people who have questions about the identity of bin Laden? "

Some also wondered at the assumption that Americans were too squeamish to handle the "graphic" nature of the images.

"Too gory? Have you met us?!" wondered Comedy Central's Jon Stewart while addressing the matter on "The Daily Show" Wednesday night. "From 8 p.m. on, every television show we watch begins with an internal tracking shot of a gaping wound above someone's left eye before pulling out to reveal half a hooker in a dumpster discovered by a child on a bicycle," Stewart said. "You know what we call it? Prime time."

Stewart also disputed the argument that the image might inspire violence, arguing that, unlike Americans, people in the Muslim world were confronted with gory images of the casualties of U.S. wars on a regular basis.

"The extremists over there already hate us, and, I don't know if you know this, but the Muslim world sees pretty graphic images of people we kill - on purpose or accidentally - all the time," he said. "Sometimes they don't even have to see it on TV."

He went on to contend that Americans were too isolated from the tangible impacts of the nation's military actions.

"We've been fighting this war for nearly ten years," Stewart said. "Thousands of U.S. deaths. Tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis have died, and we've seen nearly zero photographic evidence of it."

"We can only make decisions about war if we see what war actually is," he added. "Not as a video game where bodies disappear leaving behind a shiny gold coin."