2:32 p.m. ET: Fearing that their release could pose a risk to national security because they might incite violence, President Obama has decided not to make public any post-mortem photos of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, the White House announced this afternoon.
The decision, which the president revealed today during an interview with CBS News, follows an internal debate within the administration about whether the photos, described by the White House as gruesome, posed too much of a risk or needed to be made public to prove to any doubters that bin Laden is dead.
Any skeptics, Carney says Obama told CBS News, should know that bin Laden "will not walk this Earth again."
Update: CBS has posted a short video excerpt of the interview:
Update at 2:29 p.m. ET:President Obama also told CBS News today that "there is no doubt we killed Osama bin Laden," White House spokesman Jay Carney just told reporters, as he's announcing that the president has decided that post-mortem photos of the al-Qaida leader will not be released by the government.
Update at 2:27 p.m. ET: Because he believes the photos might be used as "an incitement to additional violence or as a propaganda tool," President Obama has decided that post-mortem photos of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden will not be released, White House spokesman Jay Carney just announced.
"We don't trot out this stuff as trophies," Obama also told CBS News earlier today, according to Carney.
Update at 2:25 p.m. ET: "The president has made a decision not to release any of the photographs of the deceased Osama bin Laden," White House spokesman Jay Carney just confirmed.
A Postscript: Earlier today, Reuters released pictures of the bodies of three unidentified men strewn inside what the news agency says is Osama Bin Laden's Abbottabad compound. The pictures (WARNING, they are graphic) show two of the bodies lying in pools of blood. In an explanation released with the pictures, Reuters says it is confident in the authenticity of the images, because it has conducted some lighting analysis and some of the details of the photographs match up with known details of the compound.
Reuters added that it bought the pictures from a "Pakistani security official who entered the compound after the early morning raid on Monday."
Our original post:
"In an interview with Steve Kroft for this Sunday's 60 Minutes, President Obama says he won't release post-mortem images of Osama Bin Laden images taken to prove his death.
"Video of the comments will appear on the CBS Evening Newson Wednesday."
We noted earlier that there was disagreement among the president's top aides on whether the images should be made public.
Earlier, we started this question. There's still time to weigh in:
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