CIA Director Leon Panetta said Tuesday he thinks a photograph of Osama bin Laden's body will be released at some point, but that it is up to the White House to make the final call. A senior administration official said that no decision has been made yet as to whether to release the photo.
According to a senior U.S. official, the White House has received three sets of photographs. The first batch, which clearly show bin Laden's body, was taken at a hangar in Afghanistan, the official said. The official described one of the images as a clear, but gruesome, picture of his face. Bin Laden is shown with a massive open head wound across both eyes, the official said, adding that the image would not be appropriate for the front pages of newspapers. The White House is hesitating over whether or not to release a picture of Osama Bin Laden’s body to prove to the doubters that the leader of Al Qaeda is dead. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the “gruesome” image could inflame sensitivities. “We are looking at releasing additional information, details about the raid as well as any other types of material, possibly including photos,” White House counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan said on ABC News’s Good Morning America show. “We want to understand exactly what the possible reaction might be to the release of this information.” However, CIA chief Leon Panetta said there was no question it would at some point be shown to the public. Bin Laden was shot in the head during the raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The body was buried at sea. Pakistan has hit back at US statements suggesting it could not be trusted with details of the operation which killed Osama Bin Laden. In an interview with the BBC, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir insisted that his country played a “pivotal role” in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and said US claims that Pakistan could not be trusted was “disquieting.” “As far as the target compound is concerned, ISI had been sharing information with CIA and other friendly intelligence agencies since 2009,” declared Bashir. When the U.S. military released pictures of the bodies of Saddam Hussein's slain sons in 2003, it was to prove that they were dead and to stem attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
Photos of Osama bin Laden's body, however, present some thornier issues.
The Obama administration was still debating Tuesday whether to release the gruesome images of bin Laden's corpse, balancing efforts to demonstrate to the world that he was dead against the risk that the images could provoke further anti-U.S. sentiment. But CIA Director Leon Panetta said Tuesday that a photograph would be released.
"The government, obviously, has been talking about how best to do this, but I don't think there was any question that, ultimately, a photograph would be presented to the public," Panetta said in an interview with "NBC Nightly News."
Some doctored images purporting to be bin Laden already have surfaced on the Internet. And the FBI also warned Tuesday to use caution upon receipt of e-mails that purport to show photos or videos of bin Laden's death because some are being used to spread viruses.
National security law experts had mixed opinions, expressing many of the same concerns as the Obama administration.
"I would advise against releasing the photos," said John Radsan, a national security law expert, former assistant general counsel for the CIA and now a professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn.
"It will be seen as disrespectful or intended to humiliate by some audiences, and I doubt that it will satisfy the skeptics," said Radsan, a former Detroiter whose parents were born in Iran. "We are a visual society, and people want visual confirmation. But, at times, we have to take the word of our government, our military and our intelligence agencies."
But Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Dearborn, said he has no problem if the government releases the photo.
"I'm fine either way," he said. "I can understand the logic that says we want to see the body ... but it could also spark more violence."
Troy attorney Shereef Akeel, an Egyptian American and Muslim, said: "It would have been more gratifying if the man had been hauled in alive to face justice."
Akeel acknowledged the trade-off between giving families of victims closure and a sense that justice has been done and inflaming terrorists to pursue more mayhem.
Asked if he would like to see the photo, Akeel said: "To me, it's not meaningful. I'll take the administration's word for it."
So will Paul McNulty, a former U.S. deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush. The onetime No. 2 official at the Justice Department said he believes the government got the right man -- and he doesn't need to see any photos as proof.
"The credibility of what has occurred seems to be self apparent, and I don't think the government should react too quickly to any expression of that kind of skepticism," he said. "I think they've made a very credible case for what has occurred."
According to a senior U.S. official, the White House has received three sets of photographs. The first batch, which clearly show bin Laden's body, was taken at a hangar in Afghanistan, the official said. The official described one of the images as a clear, but gruesome, picture of his face. Bin Laden is shown with a massive open head wound across both eyes, the official said, adding that the image would not be appropriate for the front pages of newspapers. The White House is hesitating over whether or not to release a picture of Osama Bin Laden’s body to prove to the doubters that the leader of Al Qaeda is dead. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the “gruesome” image could inflame sensitivities. “We are looking at releasing additional information, details about the raid as well as any other types of material, possibly including photos,” White House counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan said on ABC News’s Good Morning America show. “We want to understand exactly what the possible reaction might be to the release of this information.” However, CIA chief Leon Panetta said there was no question it would at some point be shown to the public. Bin Laden was shot in the head during the raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The body was buried at sea. Pakistan has hit back at US statements suggesting it could not be trusted with details of the operation which killed Osama Bin Laden. In an interview with the BBC, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir insisted that his country played a “pivotal role” in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and said US claims that Pakistan could not be trusted was “disquieting.” “As far as the target compound is concerned, ISI had been sharing information with CIA and other friendly intelligence agencies since 2009,” declared Bashir. When the U.S. military released pictures of the bodies of Saddam Hussein's slain sons in 2003, it was to prove that they were dead and to stem attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
Photos of Osama bin Laden's body, however, present some thornier issues.
The Obama administration was still debating Tuesday whether to release the gruesome images of bin Laden's corpse, balancing efforts to demonstrate to the world that he was dead against the risk that the images could provoke further anti-U.S. sentiment. But CIA Director Leon Panetta said Tuesday that a photograph would be released.
"The government, obviously, has been talking about how best to do this, but I don't think there was any question that, ultimately, a photograph would be presented to the public," Panetta said in an interview with "NBC Nightly News."
Some doctored images purporting to be bin Laden already have surfaced on the Internet. And the FBI also warned Tuesday to use caution upon receipt of e-mails that purport to show photos or videos of bin Laden's death because some are being used to spread viruses.
National security law experts had mixed opinions, expressing many of the same concerns as the Obama administration.
"I would advise against releasing the photos," said John Radsan, a national security law expert, former assistant general counsel for the CIA and now a professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn.
"It will be seen as disrespectful or intended to humiliate by some audiences, and I doubt that it will satisfy the skeptics," said Radsan, a former Detroiter whose parents were born in Iran. "We are a visual society, and people want visual confirmation. But, at times, we have to take the word of our government, our military and our intelligence agencies."
But Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Dearborn, said he has no problem if the government releases the photo.
"I'm fine either way," he said. "I can understand the logic that says we want to see the body ... but it could also spark more violence."
Troy attorney Shereef Akeel, an Egyptian American and Muslim, said: "It would have been more gratifying if the man had been hauled in alive to face justice."
Akeel acknowledged the trade-off between giving families of victims closure and a sense that justice has been done and inflaming terrorists to pursue more mayhem.
Asked if he would like to see the photo, Akeel said: "To me, it's not meaningful. I'll take the administration's word for it."
So will Paul McNulty, a former U.S. deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush. The onetime No. 2 official at the Justice Department said he believes the government got the right man -- and he doesn't need to see any photos as proof.
"The credibility of what has occurred seems to be self apparent, and I don't think the government should react too quickly to any expression of that kind of skepticism," he said. "I think they've made a very credible case for what has occurred."
0 comments:
Post a Comment