No dead Osama photos,will inflame,hurt: Obama

He disclosed his decision in an interview for the CBS program “60 Minutes,” part of which will be broadcast on the network’s evening news programs Wednesday.

According to a transcript read aloud at a White House press briefing,Obama said that there was no doubt bin Laden was dead and that “we don’t trot this stuff out as trophies — that’s not who we are.”

Obama said that for anyone who does not believe bin Laden is dead,“we don’t think that a photograph in and of itself is going to make any difference.”

“There are going to be some folks who deny it. The fact of the matter is you won’t see Osama bin Laden walking on this earth again,” said Obama.

The debate over whether to release photos of bin Laden had consumed the White House over the last two days.

Some senior officials said the release of photos was inevitable. On Tuesday,the director of the Central Intelligence Agency,Leon E. Panetta,said he did not think “there was any question that ultimately a photograph would be presented to the public.”

One US Senator said she had seen one picture showing his face. “I have seen one of them,” Republican senator Kelly Ayotte said,adding she believed it confirmed his identity.

A source said that in the photo there was a hole above his left eye and part of the skull is blown off.

Officials at the Pentagon and State Department expressed qualms about releasing gruesome photos of bin Laden’s bloodied corpse,with some arguing that the photos would not silence those who doubt that he was killed. Some lawmakers also opposed releasing the photos,arguing that doing so would serve little purpose and could endanger American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Imagine how the American people would react if al Qaeda killed one of our troops or military leaders,and put photos of the body on the Internet,” said Representative Mike Rogers,Republican of Michigan and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “Osama bin Laden is not a trophy. He is dead,and let’s now focus on continuing the fight until al Qaeda has been eliminated.”

Countering allegations that the US raid on his hideout was illegal,US Attorney General Eric Holder said bin Laden was a legitimate military target and he had made no attempt to surrender to the American forces that stormed his fortified compound and shot him in the head.

“It was justified as an act of national self-defense,” Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee,citing bin Laden’s admission of being involved in the September 11,2001 attacks.

The revelation that bin Laden was unarmed contradicted an earlier US account that he had participated in a firefight with the helicopter-borne American commandos. Al Arabiya television went further,suggesting the architect of the 9/11 attacks was first taken prisoner and then shot.

A security source in the Pakistani security quoted the daughter of bin Laden that the leader of al Qaeda was not killed inside his house,but had been arrested and was killed later,the Arabic television station said.

White House spokesman Jay Carney cited the fog of war — a phrase suggested by a reporter — as a reason for the initial misinformation.

Carney insisted bin Laden resisted when US forces stormed his compound in the 40-minute operation. He would not say how. “There was concern that bin Laden would oppose the capture operation and,indeed,he resisted,” Carney said. “A woman… bin Laden’s wife,rushed the US assaulter and was shot in the leg but not killed. Bin Laden was then shot and killed. He was not armed.”

(The Daily Telegraph said reports suggested bin Laden’s youngest child,Safia,who was born to his fifth wife,saw her father being shot dead. The child,reported to be 12 years old,“was the one who confirmed to us that Osama was dead and shot and taken away,” an ISI official said. The official also claimed that one survivor,possibly one of bin Laden’s sons,was captured by US special forces and taken away in a helicopter.)

Pakistan blamed worldwide intelligence lapses for the failure to detect bin Laden,while Washington worked to establish whether its ally had sheltered the al Qaeda leader,which Islamabad vehemently denies.

“There is an intelligence failure of the whole world,not just Pakistan alone,” Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told reporters in Paris. “(If there are)… lapses from the Pakistan side,that means there are lapses from the whole world.”