CIA shows Bin Laden photos to select US lawmakers

Three pictures were taken after the OBL’s body was flown to the Arabian Sea.

WASHINGTON:

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has begun showing US lawmakers photos of the slain al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, which US President Barack Obama said were too gruesome to be released to the public.

US Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, said he was shown 15 photographs taken of Bin Laden after he was killed in the US commando raid on May 2.

In an interview with CNN, Inhofe agreed that the photos taken in the compound in Pakistan right after Bin Laden was killed were “pretty gruesome”.

“One of the shots went through an ear and out through the eye socket. Or it went in through the eye socket and out then exploded,” he said. “That caused the brain to hang out of the eye socket, so that was pretty gruesome.”

Three photos were taken after Bin Laden’s body was removed from the compound and flown in a US aircraft carrier to the Arabian Sea, Inhofe said.

They show the al Qaeda leader’s body being washed and prepared for burial according to Muslim rites, and then lowered into the sea, he said.

“They had taken enough blood and material off his face so it was easier to identify who it was,” Inhofe said.

Inhofe said he had no doubt the man was Bin Laden.

“Absolutely, no question about it. I’ve seen them. That was him. He’s gone. He’s history,” he said. In deciding not to release the pictures to the public, the White House expressed fear that they would inflame sentiments in the Middle East and could be used as a propaganda tool against the United States.

But Inhofe, who thought the pictures should be made public.

John McCain, the US Republican senator, told a journalist he did not plan to see the images, noting: “I’ve seen enough dead people in my life.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2011.