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There was a picture floating around yesterday, allegedly from Pakistani television, of the corpse of bin Laden, but that has been debunked. But there are pictures of bin Laden out there; they were in fact used to determine his identity, using facial recognition technology. And now the White House is considering releasing the photographs.
The Obama administration has photographs of Osama bin Laden’s dead body and officials are debating what to do with them and whether they should be released to the public, officials tell ABC News.
“There’s no doubt it’s him,” says a US official who has seen the pictures and also reminds us that OBL was 6’4”.
The argument for releasing them: to ensure that the public knows and can appreciate that he’s dead. There is of course skepticism throughout the world that the US government claim that it killed bin Laden is true.
The argument against releasing the pictures: they’re gruesome. He has a massive head wound above his left eye where he took bullet, with brains and blood visible.
I think you pretty much have to release the pictures at this point, which puts me in agreement with Joe Lieberman, an uncomfortable scenario to say the least. The hasty burial at sea and the general presence of conspiracy theorists around any high-profile event necessitates a clear showing of the results of the raid. There doesn’t need to be any doubt about this if the evidence exists.
Still, I appreciate that some thought is going into this, rather than when the Bush Administration released glossy photos of Uday and Qusay Hussein as if to say “And You’re Next.”
More information has dribbled out about the raid. There was no helicopter crash, merely
a soft landing inside the compound after the vehicle stopped working. Reinforcements had to pick up the Navy SEALs after they completed the mission. They blew up the helicopter rather than leave it behind, which was certainly the explosion heard in Abbottabad.
The other revelation is that the SEALs picked up a great deal of intelligence from the bin Laden compound. It’s unclear how fresh that evidence is, but it could be used in the future.
UPDATE: Here are some maps and blueprints of the bin Laden compound.
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The key issue is the Pakistani military’s role in keeping bin Laden hidden.
Personally, I think that publicly releasing photos of a dead body serves no purpose except a prurient one. Those who want to believe he’s alive will do so. If any of the 9/11 families or the families of servicemen who died in the course of these wars want to view the photo, that should be allowed as a rite of closure. But the president will diminish himself and this accomplishment of the intelligence services and JSOC if it becomes YouTube fodder.
It would be interesting.
I don’t think Obama will release the pictures. That would be inflammatory and raise questions why he doesn’t release pictures of detainee abuse.
This is one giant Psy Ops mission being conducted by the MIC to get the American public behind Obama again and set up Petraeus for 2016.
The “ding-dong the wicked witch is dead” routine being exhibited by so called liberals is further evidence of the lack of difference between the two political parties.
Ironcomments
This is definitely propaganda plus for more Obama.
But, the thought of Petraeus after five more years
of O’monster is too frightening to contemplate.
Releasing photos is a risky move.
People might ask questions they
can’t answer.
OBL took two shots to the face. Haven’t seen what caliber bullets hit him; however, that is not going to be a pretty sight. Half his head was probably blown off.
The reason for two bullets is that the new version of the standard M-16 now has two selector options: single shot and two rounds with one trigger pull. The latter is the standard operating selection. Two rounds increases the probability of a hit and the probability that the target is over and done. (If the first round misses, the second round will hit the target, esp. if the target is moving and you’re “leading” the shot — aiming at where he’s going to be, not where he is.)
If he was hit in the face then all you’re going to see from a front pix is a couple of small holes. The back and side of his head, well, that’s gonna be pretty gruesome (unless his hair covered part of the exit wounds).
No helicopter crash? How many lies are they going to peddle before they settle on one?
http://cryptome.org/chopper-down-6.jpg
According to the live tweeter, they were going door to door after the chopper
was hithad mechanical trouble. Fuckin’ liars. And they wonder why conspiracy theorists abound.We’ve seen brainless heads from bahrain, and torture from Abu Ghraib. The only thing I refused to look at or watch was beheading videos, but I did see pictures of before and after.
it’s stupid that they aren’t releasing them.