Should The White House Release A Picture of Osama Bin Laden’s Body?

Posted on | May 3, 2011 | No Comments

This image had been circulated on the Internet long before Bin Laden's death, but strangely enough it shows major damage to the left eye, where Obama was reportedly shot Sunday.

By: Rich Bergeron

Like many Americans, I’ve been glued to the news stations over the past few days watching the reports on the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. I’ve found it interesting that so many reporters are offering so many different versions of what actually happened. It’s becoming hard to distinguish fact from fiction at this point.

For one, the number of individuals killed in the raid fluctuated from 4 total in initial reports to 5, and then back to 4 this morning during a White House briefing. We heard early on that a woman was used as a human shield by one of Bin Laden’s guards, and that version of the story’s also been contradicted since then. Now we’re told Bin Laden’s wife was shot in the leg after lunging at the SEAL team entering their bedroom. One woman was killed, and that part of the story’s remained constant, but lately we’re hearing there were actually no guards at all in the compound when the raid went down. We’re told two courier brothers lived at the compound, and during this morning’s briefing by White House Press Secretary Jay Carney we were told that both of those men were killed. Add the woman to those two, and Bin Laden, and we have our four total killed. So, what about those reports that Bin Laden’s oldest son was killed as well? It’s been over 48 hours now since the raid went down and we have well paid and sophisticated intelligence officials who should know better than to let such conflicting information go out to the general public without making immediate and substantial corrections to keep the record straight.

The news stations aren’t asking any questions about all this conflicting information, though. It seems they’re more intent on blaming Pakistan for not being aware of Bin Laden’s presence in a town known as a retirement haven for dignitiaries and high level military officers. While there is evidence that certain factions in Pakistan’s military and government might be sympathetic to Bin Laden and his network of radical Islamic militants, it does not mean the entire government is in league with the enemy. It’s becoming increasingly clear that America’s news media would rather try to prove rumors and purely speculative allegations rather than track down the true story behind the raid.

As far as the pictures taken of Bin Laden’s body (the above photo is a fabrication), there is much talk about the “sensitivity” issues involved in potentially releasing these images to the public. There are more reasons justifying the release of these photos than ones to avoid doing so from what I can see. First of all, we are at war with people who are happy to kill innocent civilians, even women and children, to further their radical agenda. Secondly, these are folks who get angry enough to engage in deadly riots when a political cartoon comes out depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a terrorist. Finally, we should not forget that this same network of terrorists had no qualms about spreading the horrendous video of Nicholas Berg’s beheading around the world to further their propoganda effort. So, essentially we’re not going to start a new war in releasing these pictures, and the enemy is going to be pissed at us whether we show them or not. So why are we so hesitant to produce these pictures for the world to see?

We should be confident enough that our high levels of security will prevent any attempts at retaliation. We should not be afraid to shout from the rooftops about our victory here. And when we do shout, we ought to make sure we’re shouting the facts, and pictures certainly do not lie (unless they’re photoshopped). That’s also another reason being bandied about for not releasing photos: potential accusations that they will be faked photos. Let the conspiracy theorists run rampant all they want. It won’t change the truth. The news media’s foaming at the mouth reporting of news that’s now been deemed false is much more likely to fuel conspiracy theories than the photos anyway. So, get it over with already, and let’s see these graphic images and quit worrying about how the enemy will respond. I think it’s more important to send the message that this is what will happen to you when you advocate and encourage the purposeful killing of civilans in the name of furthering ancient, radical islamic fundamentalism and fanaticism. After all, who’s going to want to fill the void Bin Laden’s death leaves when they see exactly how he met his end?