Debate rages over Osama death photos

While U.S. President Barack Obama headed to New York to lay a wreath at Ground Zero on Thursday, controversy continued to swirl around the post-mortem photos of Osama bin Laden.

Around the world, and especially in the U.S., people were arguing for and against the release of the photos. As White House Press Secretary Jay Carney Secretary said on Wednesday, “there are obviously arguments to be made on either side.”

In many quarters, the Obama administration has been praised for refusing to release the photos. His supporters argue that making the gruesome pictures public would inflame anti-American sentiment, even in moderate Arab countries, and provide a rallying point for al Qaida.

“It is important 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 or as a propaganda tool,” Obama himself told CBS.

Many also feel that celebrating the death of any one person is wrong and is contrary to the values Americans hold dear. For that reason, some of these people disapproved of the celebrations that erupted in American cities when it was announced bin Laden had been killed.

Most of those opposed to the release of the photos say that no evidence, no matter how credible, would put an end to the conspiracy theories. Skeptics can always come up with reasons to doubt the authenticity of evidence that Osama is dead. “There are going to be some folks who deny it,” Obama said.

Finally, some people argue the release of the photo would violate certain standards of human decency. “We are trying to take the moral high ground. That is why Osama’s body was disposed of according to Islamic law,” John Thompson of the MacKenzie Institute, a Toronto-based think tank, told Global News.

“We don’t videotape beheadings and post them on the Internet. That would be departing from our best practices.” He added that it’s “not like the old days where you bring back the head of your enemy.”

“We don’t trot out this stuff as trophies,” Obama said. “The fact of the matter is, this is somebody who was deserving of the justice that he received.”

Thompson added that releasing the photos would be illegal. “The real issue is a legal one,” he said. “In the military, we have court martialed soldiers for taking photos and sending them home. Doing so is against regulations in Canada and the U.S. – and the American president must abide by those regulations.”

However, even Thompson recognizes the public’s desire to “see the monster is dead.”

Those in favour of releasing the photos say they provide proof that bin Laden is dead and could quiet naysayers in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Some people insist the photos should be released despite the fact that they are gruesome and might inflame anti-American sentiment in the Arab world.

“We have seen graphic images played across our television screens and newspapers before. We have seen the dead and dying lying in the streets on 9/11. We saw American citizens jump out of the towers in desperation. We saw all of this because of the terrorist leadership of one man. Let us see now his demise,” said American blogger Joshua Cooke said in the St. George News, a news outlet in Utah.

“I am not ashamed to say that in this moment, I want the United States to flex its muscle. I want the United States to send a message I think Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it well, ‘You cannot wait us out, you cannot defeat us…’"

Those who want the photo released argue that terrorists will want to retaliate against the U.S. whether or not the photo is made public.

Nonetheless, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham wants the photos to be released. “The whole purpose of sending our soldiers into the compound, rather than an aerial bombardment, was to obtain indisputable proof of bin Laden’s death,” he told CBS.

Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin used social media to express her disapproval of Obama’s decision. “Show photo as warning to others seeking America’s destruction,” she wrote on Twitter. “No pussy-footing around, no politicking, no drama; it’s part of the mission."