The White House on Tuesday continued to refuse to make public gruesome photos affirming Osama bin Laden’s death, despite calls from some corners among politicians, the families of 9/11 victims and some skeptics for it to do so.
"There are sensitivities here in terms of the appropriateness of releasing photographs," said White House spokesman Jay Carney, who added that the photos of Bin Laden's corpse "could be inflammatory."
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, addressing reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, was one of several members of Congress who have said the administration should release the photos, adding that U.S. officials should have kept Bin Laden’s body, which was buried at sea on Monday, and should have released an independent DNA analysis to confirm his identity.
Graham did not count himself among those who doubt that the Al Qaeda figure was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan. But he said the proof would quiet those who doubt.
For some, the debate was eerily reminiscent of the flap over President Obama’s birth certificate, albeit in a wildly different context, in which the White House was continually pressed to satisfy the demands of a discrete minority that refused to accept the president's version of events.
But where there the concerns were largely political, in the case of Bin Laden, administration officials fear the photos could provoke some in the Muslim world. The photos are also reportedly grim, as Bin Laden was shot above the left eye and the chest, U.S. officials said, near the end of the 40-minute operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
On Sean Hannity’s program on Fox News Channel on Monday evening, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the mayor of New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, said that he had no problem with the administration’s decision to give Bin Laden a burial at sea in accordance with Islamic custom, despite the unhappiness expressed by families of victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center.
“I think it was OK,” Giuliani said. “I mean, I might not have made that decision but I'm OK with that decision being made.... He can have all of the services he wants, he's going to hell…And the reality is I did like the idea of burying him at sea because we don't end up with a memorial for him anywhere.”
But Giuliani, as well, called on the administration to release the photos of bin Laden’s corpse.
“They should put the pictures out,” he said, “the pictures should be out now so that you take out the element of why aren't they showing the pictures and whatever they look like, no matter how insensitive they are, people can handle that. And who cares what he looks like.”
Along with Graham, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said Monday the photos should be released.
“I recognize that there will be those who will try to generate this myth that he’s alive,” Collins said. “In order to put that to rest, it may be necessary to release some of the pictures or video or DNA tests to prevent that from happening.”
But Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, dismissed the need for proof. “If he’s not, let him produce a video to prove he’s not,” he told reporters in Doral, Fla. “Because he was pretty good at doing that once upon a time.”
Photos: Osama bin Laden killed in raid
Michael A. Memoli and Christi Parsons of the Washington Bureau contributed to this report.
Sean Hannity of Fox News interviews former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani about the White House's decision to delay releasing photos of Osama bin Laden's body.
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