Wednesday, May 4, 2011

No Bin-Laden Photo After All, Apparently

Posted By on Wed, May 4, 2011 at 10:49 AM

The White House has apparently changed its mind on releasing the photo taken in Afghanistan of Osama bin-Laden's corpse:

NBC News’ Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie have both reported via Twitter that President Obama has decided NOT to release photos of Osama bin Laden’s corpse. This is somewhat of a surprising development given the great amount of buzz yesterday that the White House WOULD be releasing the photos. This report runs counter to CIA Chief Leon Panetta yesterday telling NBC News anchor Brian Williams that the photo would in fact be released.

The debate over whether or not to release the image was based on some Internet-based skeptics who openly wondered about conspiracies and those who were concerned that the image would inflame anti-American sentiment in a world of extremists. A similar debate has arisen over the alleged existence of video footage of bin Laden’s somewhat controversial burial at sea. That video has not yet been release.

Guthrie reports that, according to her sources, the White House was concerned that the allegedly graphic image of a dead bin Laden would become somewhat of a shrine in the Muslim world.

CBS News has confirmed the report by NBC.

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