White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
The watchdog group Judicial Watch submitted FOIA requests to both DoD and CIA for photos and/or video showing a deceased Osama bin Laden. After DoD responded that it would not be able to produce the photographs in the timeframe specified by the FOIA law, Judicial watch filed a lawsuit.
In his recent interview on 60 Minutes, President Obama argued against the release of the bin Laden photos citing that,
It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence as a propaganda tool....And given the graphic nature of these photos it would create some national security risk.
The case clearly involves a deep conflict between the public's right to know and the president's ability to conduct foreign policy in a way that he sees appropriate. In most instances, I am suspicious of claims of unilateral presidential power, but I confess that in this instance my sympathies are with the president. It is perfectly clear that no one can say with certainty that this or that person may well be impacted by the photographs. But that is exactly why the war on terror is so difficult. No one quite knows where the next stage will take place or why. In this instance, the pictures of bin Laden could, for all I know, inspire moderate Muslims to shift their sentiments against the United States in ways that could perhaps foster violence. I can't estimate the probabilities of this eventuality, or even its severity. But I do not rate it at zero. Given the high stakes, I think that a considered presidential judgment is acceptable. We know that the pictures are gory and we know that bin Laden is quite dead, so the added intellectual content is minor even as the emotional impact could be great.
In these cases, I would leave matters as they stand. I would not want the President to destroy the pictures, and think that the issue could, either way, end up in the lap of Congress to decide what it thinks about this matter through an amendment of FOIA, which would then shift the battle from the First Amendment to the scope of executive and congressional power. I confess that I am not happy with this conclusion. But I am less unhappy with this one than with the idea that the individual applicants not the president get to control the political decision. I am sure that there are many Americans who do not want this pictures out, and in this instance there is no way that FOIA gives voice to their sentiment.
There will surely be more to come.
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Comments :
Oct '10
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
There's a public right to know?
Aug '10
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
I agree that the public doesn't have any say in affairs of state and war.
The problem with this one is that basic lack of trust in the POTUS.
Combined with a basic lack of trust in the MSM, photos are superfluous to other issues.
Who to trust anyways anymore ? i.e.:Reuters
Besides, where was that picture of Hitler in ze bunker ? Eh ?
Yamamoto in the drink, Kennedy at Parkland, the list goes on.
Damn the public's right to know, they have the right to question and guess and then vote later if they think they have been hoodwinked.
FOIA is pretty much a wet noodle in the wrong hands isn't it ?
Edited on May 16, 2011 at 6:01pmNov '10
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
flownover:
The problem with this one is that basic lack of trust in the POTUS.
I think this lack of trust might also have instigated some of the hysteria over the birth certificate.
Jun '10
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
What is it that you don't know?
That Osama is dead? That brain matter is gray? That bullets through the head are a severe impediment to good health?
Edited on May 16, 2011 at 6:21pmApr '11
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
Although the think the question of the release of the photos is not a black and white question, I don't think I completely understand this one, though I've heard it before.
What is the nature of the moderation of the moderate Muslims who would shift their sentiment against the United States because we released the photograph of the corpse of the man responsible for the deaths of 3,000 people on September 11 and numerous other terrorist attacks around the world?
I don't discount that the photos could have some kind of effect (although they might demoralize some people, I suppose). Thousands dead and the photograph tips the balance?
If that is really what passes for moderation in the Muslim world, we're in a lot of trouble.
May '10
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
The photos will be released when President Obama decides their release will be most politically opportune for him. Most likely when there's something he wants to take out of the top of the news cycle.
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
Was there measurable damage from the video of the capture or hanging of Saddam? KSM in his undies? Uday and Qsay Hussein shot in the teeth?
Jul '10
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
etoiledunord
What is it that you don't know?
That Osama is dead? That brain matter is gray? That bullets through the head are a severe impediment to good health?
My theory of the government is trust but verify. In this instance, we do have a right to know in the sense that the government has the obligation to illuminate evidence which supports their statements, which, in this case, are completely unfounded at this point. This is for the reason that a statement such "Osama is dead, we killed him and dumped him into the sea" without any evidence whatsoever is pretty suspicious in my mind, as it should be to any reasonable person with all their faculties.
"Because I said so" works with 7 year old children. The condescension of this administration has always treated the American Public as such, and so the argument presented by Mr. Epstein is quite weak.
Moreover, foreign policy should not be dictated by whether or not we offend the sensibilities of our enemies. That argument carries no water. I would expect a self-proclaimed libertarian to be more circumspect.
Mar '11
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
Assume special forces had gotten Bin Laden with W still in office. There would have been ONE version of events (not 72 versions), no pictures of the situation room, a polite statement thanking the team that got him - all at least a year after we had exploited all the intel that was collected, and maybe never released at all.
May '10
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
[Comment redacted by an editor]
I watched 3,000 of my country men die before my eyes on 9/11 and you want to protect me from a photograph? How many service men and women died to bring about this death that you want to protect me from?
Have you ever used a non-restrictive Google Image search with the phrases Mussolini execution, Zapruder film or Kennedy autopsy? I am allowed to see President Kennedy's brains but Osama bin Laden's is too much?
As for Muslim sensitivities, those that celebrated in the streets on 9/11 have no sense. And they need to know what happens to those that do attack.
Edited on May 17, 2011 at 9:05amApr '11
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
If a graphic photo of OBL with a bullet hole in his head actually exists and will humiliate and demoralize our enemies, then why not publish it?
Apr '11
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
If a graphic photo of OBL with a bullet hole in his head actually exists and will humiliate and demoralize our enemies, then why not publish it?
Dec '10
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
flownover:
Besides, where was that picture of Hitler in ze bunker ? Eh ?
Yamamoto in the drink, Kennedy at Parkland, the list goes on.
Hitler was burned up. No photos. Yamamoto's plane was splashed, again no photos. Kennedy at Parkland? Those are actually on the net. We were also treated, not so many years ago, to the televised images of burned American corpses that had been dragged through the streets and hung from a bridge. Also of Daniel Pearl having his head sawed off. Those last two were by Muslims, thank you very much. Spare me the worry about the Muslim world's reaction to a still of bin Laden with a bullet in his head.
The administration had plenty of time to recognize that stealing his body and quietly dumping it into the sea without a single photograph as proof was going to be a problem. They could have taken pictures of him dead without being overly grotesque.
I notice the president and his staff didn't leave it to the SEALs to just claim they killed him. They got videos and photos. Yet we're supposed to swallow this with nothing. Not TOO arrogant.
May '10
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
In this case I must respectfully disagree with Dr. Epstein. My Senator, Diane Feinstein of California, was recently reported to have said words to the effect of "I have seen the photos; I did not need to see them and neither does anybody else."
My objection to this is that it places Senator Feinstein in a privileged status that is something above citizen. No politician in any office should enjoy special privileges that are unavailable to the rest of the country's citizens and, national security considerations aside, should not be making decisions about what can and cannot be seen by the public they ostensibly work for. They are not Lords or Barons with divine rights and privileges, they are only citizens who were elected to do a job. Bin Laden was shot on my behalf with my tax dollars and I am as entitled as any Senator or congressional representative to see the results of the act.
Let the pictures be released to the public and if any are offended by it let them cope as best they can through their own moral agency. If "moderate Muslims" are inspired to shift their sentiments it will be their own choice.
Jan '11
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
Great! So the prosecution of the CIA agents for enhanced interrogation will be stopped now too, right? A reason for incitement and all that? :)
Jul '10
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
I think most Americans trust that Bin Laden is dead.
As for the wack-jobs of the Muslim world, photos will either incite them or they will believe the photos have been altered. Either way, it doesn't redound to our benefit.
But it might be a good idea to release Osama's cache of pornography. That will keep the Muslim world in a good, long state of befuddlement.
Nov '10
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
In all the discussion about the release of the Usama photos I have yet to hear anyone identify it as a presidential campaign issue. I predict at least one candidate will adopt it, and the Obama reaction will be interesting to watch.
I also predict we will see one or more of these photos before any kind of official release. Many, many people have handled them already, and to think that some senator's 22-year-old staffer hasn't taken a few iPhone pics to show his girlfriend is naive.
Jul '10
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
I think the case to release the photos has lost some of its urgency since Al-Qaeda itself has acknowledged that Bin Laden is in fact dead.
Still, I can't imagine how they would inflame opinion in the Arab world that wasn't already inflamed by his being killed in the first place.
There is a bit of head-on-the-pike value to them as well. To hold them up and say, "This is what casting yourself as an enemy of America will earn you." As the apocryphal Caligula quote put it, "Let them hate, so long as they fear."
May '11
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
Wylee Coyote said:
"There is a bit of head-on-the-pike value to them as well. To hold them up and say, "This is what casting yourself as an enemy of America will earn you." As the apocryphal Caligula quote put it, "Let them hate, so long as they fear.""
Good as far as it goes. The next step is to point to the photograph, look into the camera and say, "You are next Anwar ai-Awalaki!" It just might slow him down by forcing him to take "evasive action."
Aug '10
Re: White House Is Right Not to Release Bin Laden Photos
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the publication of images of a dead enemy's corpse a violation of one of the treaties to which the USA is a signatory?
Back when Saddam Hussein was executed, I seem to recall reading an article that reported that it's considered a violation of the laws of war to publish these kinds of photos. At least, I think that's when I read about it. It's a very vague memory.
Anyhoo, I agree that it's simply not worth it to publish the photos of Osama. There are too many cons and not enough pros to publishing the photos. It wouldn't even serve the purpose of convincing the conspiracy theorists, and that's the only possible justification I can think of for publishing the photos.