Yesterday we received two sets labeled “Leaked pictures” of Osama Bin Laden. They have been shown to be faked. It appears there are many talented fraudulent picture creators working to capitalize on the fervor. One was so well done according to official descriptives that it suckered a close friend of mine and subsequently me. So that no-one else would be misled they have been removed from this thread.
Personally, I feel the time has past for photographic release. The only value in continuing the dialogue or discussion now is to drag out, and try to extend, the political benefit for Obama. He is soaking this for all it’s politically worth. Even today, despite all the economic challenges, people out of work, massive inflation, budget issues, and the arguments about raising the deficit ceiling, he is choosing to tape an appearance on 60 minutes TV show today, and then take his opportunistic campaigning road show to New York City, at Ground Zero, tomorrow. “We do that which is important to us”, right?
You can tell where President Obama’s priorities are. The actual “governing” thing is such a pesky inconvienience……. but I digress. Here is the latest on the “pics”.
The “official Government position” has now shifted toward NOT releasing the pictures. (ABC News) — President Obama is increasingly doubtful that there’s a compelling reason to release a photograph of Osama bin Laden’s corpse, ABC News has learned.
There don’t seem to be many skeptics of bin Laden’s death in the Muslim world, with bin Laden’s wife having survived the attack to identify bin Laden’s death both to the Navy SEALs and Pakistani authorities. Meanwhile, sources say, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are advising the president about concerns at the Pentagon and State Department that releasing a photograph could prompt a backlash against the US for killing bin Laden where one does not seem to currently exist.
The internal debate at the White House is then informed by this question: why are we releasing this photograph if no one seems to really doubt his death and releasing it could cause more harm than good? US official:
“The only skeptics are extremists and they wouldn’t be convinced by a photograph anyway. So the president has to weigh the potential negatives and they’re huge, there’s a tremendous risk of the photo becoming a rallying cry for attacks against US soldiers, government personnel, and Americans in general.” (read more)
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The senior us official also says the White House received 3 sets of photos yesterday. The photos included:
1. Photos of OBLs body at a hangar after he was brought back to Afghanistan. This is the most recognizable with a clear picture of his face. The picture is gruesome because he has a massive open head wound across both eyes. It’s very bloody and gory. […]
2. The official says the challenge is that the picture that includes the most recognizable image of OBLs face – from the hangar in Afghanistan – is so gruesome and mangled its not appropriate for say the front page of the newspaper. On the other hand, this is the one that is most identifiable as him.
The White House has stated they delayed the release of photographs showing Osama bin Laden’s body because White House officials were afraid that releasing the images, described as ‘gruesome’ and thought to show the dead al-Qaeda leader with a massive head wound, would offend ‘sensitivities’ in the Muslim world. The news comes as a Taliban spokesman demands to see photographic evidence of the assassination. The White House says the photograph of a dead Osama bin Laden is ‘gruesome’ and that ‘it could be inflammatory’.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said the White House mulled whether to make the photo public, he said officials were concerned about the ‘sensitivity’ of doing so.
Muslim clerics are predicting revenge attacks against American targets because of the way the government decided to dispose of the leader’s body. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement emailed to journalists: ‘This news is only coming from one side, from Obama’s office, and America has not shown any evidence or proof to support this claim.
The SEAL team also used a facial recognition system to positively identify the body of bin Laden. The commander of the operation took a digital image of bin Laden’s remains and fed them back to the CIA, where a facial recognition system confirmed the identity. Bin Laden’s widow, a 19-year-old Yemeni woman in the compound was also brought to identify the body. As well as bin Laden, one of his adult sons – possibly 19-year-old Hamza Bin Laden – the courier who led the CIA to bin Laden and the courier’s brother were also killed.
The New York Times reported a Pakistani official as saying there were nine children, from 2 to 12 years old, left behind in the compound. Intelligence experts in Afghanistan are today sifting through a treasure trove of computer hard drives and other intelligence captured from the compound in Pakistan – described by one official as ‘the mother load’.
Officials today have given hints that photos of the body prior to its disposal in the North Arabian Sea may be released. John Brennan, the White House counter-terrorism chief, told reporters that the administration was still deliberating on release of the material. Making it public might satisfy those who would otherwise doubt that it was bin Laden who was killed.
‘On the other side, our sources close to Osama bin Laden have not confirmed or denied the news. ‘Until there is news from sources close to Osama bin Laden it will be too early to provide any reaction.’ Officials are also considering whether to release a video showing Osama Bin Laden being buried at sea.
The dead terror chief was given an Islamic burial in the North Arabian Sea in a bid to stop his fanatical followers turning his final resting place into a shrine. Officials did not reveal the exact location where sailors on the American aircraft carrier the USS Carl Vinson lowered his body in to the water. But two Pentagon officials said the burial was videotaped and that it probably will be released soon.
The burial from an aircraft carrier in the North Arabian Sea was videotaped aboard the ship, according to a senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because a decision on whether to release the video was not final. The official said it was highly likely that the video, along with photographs of bin Laden’s body, would be made public in
coming days.
The swiftness of the burial may have raised suspicions but was in accord with Islamic traditions. Islamic scholars, however, challenged U.S. assertions that a burial at sea was an appropriate fate for a Muslim who had died on land. The act denied al-Qaida any sort of burial shrine for their slain leader. Once again, bin Laden had vanished, but this time
at the hands of the United States and in a way that ensures he is gone forever.
If that satisfies U.S. goals and its sense of justice, Brad Sagarin, a psychologist at Northern Illinois University who studies persuasion, said the rapid disposition of the body ‘would certainly be a rich sort of kernel for somebody to grasp onto if they were motivated to
disbelieve this.’ Also expected to come out is a tape made by bin Laden, before U.S. forces bore down on him, that may provide fodder to those who refuse to believe he is DEAD.