We don't trot out this stuff as trophies: Obama on Osama photo

Washington: US President Obama has decided not to release photographs of Osama bin Laden's body, CBS News reported on Wednesday. Mr. Obama said he concluded that images of bin Laden, bloodied by gunshots, would do nothing to persuade skeptics, but could inflame tensions in the Muslim world and pose problems for America's national security.

He disclosed his decision in an interview for the CBS program 60 Minutes, part of which will be broadcast on the network's evening news programs on Wednesday.

According to a transcript read aloud at a White House press briefing, Mr. Obama said that there was no doubt bin Laden was dead and that "we don't trot this stuff out as trophies - that's not who we are."

The debate over whether to release photos of bin Laden had consumed the White House over the last two days. Some senior officials said the release of photos was inevitable. On Tuesday, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E Panetta, said he did not think "there was any question that ultimately a photograph would be presented to the public."

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US Weighs Release Of Bin Laden Photo

CIA chief Leon Panetta has suggested that photographs taken of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after he was killed will eventually be made public.

However, the White House was more cautious about the likelihood it would release images of the terrorist leader taken after he was shot in the head during a raid on his home in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad by US Navy SEALS.

"It's fair to say that it's a gruesome photograph," White House spokesman Jay Carney, appearing to refer to an image of bin Laden taken shortly after bin Laden was killed him at the compound.

"I'll be candid. There are sensitivities here in terms of the appropriateness of releasing photographs of Osama bin Laden."

There are fears that releasing the images could be seen as distasteful by some and be exploited by al Qaeda and other extremist groups.

"What we don't want to do is to release anything that might be either misunderstood or that would cause other problems," White House counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan said on National Public Radio.

At least two sets of photographs of bin Laden after he was shot dead are believed to exist - one set taken after his body was transferred to a hanger in Afghanistan and the second on the USS Vinson before he was buried at sea.

Officials said that bin Laden's body was washed and he was accorded full Islamic rites before being slipped into the Arabian Sea.


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