The two, top members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, both said they would defer to President Barack Obama on whether to go public with the photos, but leaned toward releasing them or other evidence that bin Laden was killed. The administration is said to be grappling with the decision, because of the gruesome nature of the shots and potential repercussions of widely publicizing such images.
“That’s a very difficult decision and I’ll leave it up to the administration and the president,” Lieberman (I-Conn.) said. “There is a problem here though. Unless there’s an acknowledgment by people in Al Qaeda that bin Laden is dead, then it may be necessary to release the pictures — as gruesome as they inevitably will be because he’s been shot in the head — to quell any doubts that this somehow is a ruse that the American government has carried out. So my own instinct is it’s necessary to release those pictures, but I will respect whatever decision the president makes.”
Both Lieberman and Collins emphasized that they personally have no doubts that bin Laden was killed Sunday, with Lieberman saying he is “absolutely convinced” of the terrorist’s identity and Collins adding that the DNA evidence provided by the government is “pretty conclusive.”
Yet the two lawmakers recognize that those who might contest bin Laden’s death are not as rational and might not be sold.
“This is a difficult issue. I, too, have absolutely no doubt that Osama bin Laden was killed yesterday, but I recognize that there will be those who will try to generate this myth that he’s alive and that we missed him somehow. And in order to put that to rest, it may be necessary to release some of the pictures or video or the DNA tests to prevent that from happening,” Collins said.
Accounts from the White House late last night indicated that Obama along with his national security team in the situation room monitored a livestream of the mission conducted by the Navy SEALs. Though Collins alluded to this video, it was not immediately clear whether that evidence would ever be considered for public distribution.