Susan Cornwell and Mark Hosenball, Reuters
May 5, 2011, 5:01 am
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney listens to questions during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, May 4, 2011. REUTERS/Jim Young Enlarge photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House has decided not to release photos of dead al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, officials said on Wednesday as a senator told reporters she had seen one of the pictures.
President Barack Obama "has decided against photo release," a U.S. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry told Reuters he had been told the photographs will not be released. "I believe it is absolutely the right decision," Kerry said.
"Absent some major challenge to the fact of death, there is no clamor that I can discern requiring proof of death and I think it would in fact create a kind of ghoulish exploitation that is not appropriate ... could encourage repercussions in parts of the world..."
The Obama administration has been wrestling with whether to make public what it calls a gruesome image of bin Laden's corpse, even as Islamic militants are questioning whether U.S. forces really killed him.
U.S. forces who raided the compound where bin Laden was living in Pakistan on Monday shot bin Laden in the face, one U.S. official says. This official said on Wednesday that bits of brain are visible in photos of the corpse.
Senator Kelly Ayotte told reporters at the Capitol the photo she saw confirmed bin Laden's identity. She said it was a facial shot and that another senator showed it to her.
"I saw a photo of him deceased, the head area. Obviously he had been wounded ... I can't give any better description than that," she said.
Asked if the photo confirmed the identity of the dead man as bin Laden, Ayotte said, "My view, yes."
"Obviously I'm not an expert in this area. But ... since he's such a well known figure, when you see the picture, it clearly has his features," said Ayotte, a Republican.
Ayotte spoke to reporters after CIA Director Leon Panetta gave a closed-door briefing on bin Laden's death to senators on the Armed Services and Intelligence committees. But there was no indication that she had seen the photo during that forum.
U.S. LAWMAKERS DISAGREE
Other senators who attended the briefing said they had not seen bin Laden photos, and one aide said none were shown.
U.S. lawmakers disagree over whether the photos of bin Laden should be released to the public. Ayotte said they should -- to help quash any doubts about whether bin Laden was dead.
"Unfortunately, we've seen that in many instances around the world there can be conspiracy theories about these types of events. So I think it's important in terms of closure, that while nobody wants to see disturbing photos, the closure aspect I think is very important."
But House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said releasing the photos "will only serve to inflame opinion in the Middle East."
"Osama bin Laden is not a trophy - he is dead and let's now focus on continuing the fight until al Qaeda has been eliminated," he said in a statement.
(Editing by Doina Chiacu)
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