Heat as Obama decides not to release bin Laden photos

President Obama is taking heat from both sides of the political divide for his decision not to release photographs of Osama bin Laden's body. Meanwhile, some lawmakers created confusion

on Capitol Hill yesterday by mistakenly saying they had seen the controversial images, before backing off.

After mulling the issue for days, the White House announced yesterday that photos of the slain al Qaeda leader would not be made public. The president told 60 Minutes he wanted to ensure the images--said to be extremely gruesome--can't be used as an "incitement to violence" or as "propaganda tools."

Some GOP figures were quick to criticize the president's decision to keep the photos under wraps. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, said this morning on CBS's "The Early Show" that the pictures would help bring "closure" for the families of 9/11 victims. And Sarah Palin tweeted yesterday afternoon that the photos should be released as a "warning to others seeking America's destruction," adding "No pussyfooting around."

Even some who are usually friendlier to the president have questioned his call. Jon Stewart argued on The Daily Show last night in favor of releasing the photos because "we can only make decisions about war if we see what war actually is."

And Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, a liberal who has generally backed Obama, wrote yesterday that the images "would have disillusioned and deflated" potential jihadis.

Before Obama's decision was announced yesterday, CIA director Leon Panetta had lobbied publicly for the photos' release, even predicting in an interview with NBC News that they would be.

Of course, plenty of people support the president's decision. Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat, said this morning on "The Early Show" that making the photos public would have risked endangering the lives of our troops and intelligence officers.

Meanwhile, three Republican senators yesterday said they'd seen the pictures--before walking back on those claims later in the day, raising the possibility that they had been duped by fake images on the Internet.

Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts told the cable station NECN: "I have seen the photos." But later he told the station that he now understood the photos weren't authentic.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence committee, also claimed to reporters that he had seen the photos, before backing off in an email to The Ticket. A spokeswoman blamed the slip on a "miscommunication."

And Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire told reporters: "I saw a photo of him deceased, the head area." But later she said in an email to The Ticket: "While I was shown a photo by another senator of what appeared to be a deceased Osama bin Laden, I do not know if it was authentic."

Despite President Obama's decision, it's possible that the actual photos could yet come out. Steven Aftergood, an expert on transparency issues with the Federation of American Scientists, told The Lookout Tuesday that if a request were made under the Freedom of Information Act to release the photos, the administration would ultimately have little legal basis to withhold them--though that process could take years.

Graphic images of the scene of Sunday's raid have already appeared. Yesterday, Reuters published a group of photos, said to have been taken by a Pakistani security official, showing the bodies of four men killed along with the al Qaeda leader. But bin Laden was not among them.