Public disclosure of graphic photos and videos of Osama Bin Laden after he was killed by the US commandos would damage national security, the Obama administration contended in a court document. In response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group seeking the imagery, Justice Department attorneys said the CIA had located 52 photographs and video recordings.
However, they argued that images of the deceased bin Laden were classified and were being withheld from public to avoid inciting violence against Americans overseas and to compromise secret systems and techniques used by the CIA and the military. The Justice Department had asked the court to dismiss the Judicial Watch’s lawsuit because the records required by the group were “wholly exempt from disclosure,” files revealed.
Tom Fitton, President of the Judicial Watch, accused the Obama administration of making a “political decision” to keep the Bin Laden imagery secret. “We shouldn’t throw out our transparency laws because complying with them might offend terrorists,” Fitton said in a statement. “The historical record of Osama Bin Laden’s death should be released to the Americans as the law requires,” he added.
The Associated Press (AP) had filed Freedom of Information Act requests to review a range of materials, such as contingency plans for Bin Laden’s capture, reports on the performance of equipment during the May 1 assault on his compound in Abbottabad and copies of DNA tests confirming the al-Qaida leader’s identity. The AP had also asked for videos and photographs including photos made of Bin Laden after he was killed.
The Obama administration refused AP’s plea to quickly consider its request for the records o n which the AP appealed the decision, arguing that unnecessary bureaucratic delays would harm the public interests and would allow anonymous US officials to selectively leak details about the mission. Without expedited processing, requests for sensitive materials can be delayed for months and even years. The AP submitted its request to the Pentagon less than one day after bin Laden’s death.
In a declaration included in the documents, John Bennett, director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, said many of the photos and video recordings were “quite graphic, as they depicted the fatal bullet wound to (Bin Laden) and other similarly gruesome images of his corpse.” Images were taken of Bin Laden’s body at the Abbottabad compound, where he was killed by a Navy SEAL team and during his burial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson, Bennett said.
“The public release of the responsive records will provide terrorist groups and other entities hostile to the US with information to create propaganda which, in turn, can be used to recruit, raise funds, inflame tensions, or rally support for causes and actions that can reasonably result in exceptionally grave damage to both the national defence and foreign relations of the United States,” Bennett wrote.
William McRaven, the top officer at the US Special Operations Command, said in a separate declaration that releasing the imagery could put the special operations team that carried out the assault on bin Laden’s compound at risk by making them “more readily identifiable in the future.” Before his current assignment, McRaven led the Joint Special Operations Command, the organisation in charge of the military specialised counterterrorism units.
