WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama said Wednesday he had decided not to release a photograph showing the body of Osama bin Laden for fear it will become a propaganda tool.
"That is not who we are. We don't trot this stuff out as trophies," Obama said in an interview with CBS, adding it was important to keep photographic evidence from "floating around as incitement or propaganda tool."
"There is no doubt that bin Laden is dead. Certainly there is. no doubt among al-Qaeda members that he is dead. And so we don't think that a photograph in and of itself is going to make any difference.
"The fact of the matter is, you will not see bin Laden walking on this earth again," Obama said, according to an excerpt of the interview read to reporters by White House spokesman Jay Carney.
Obama had consulted members of his national security team about whether to release the photo which he has seen, before taking his decision.
Carney said there had been debate within the US administration about whether to release the images, which he described as "graphic photographs of someone who was shot in the face the head, rather."
"It is not in our national security interests to allow those images, as has been in the past been the case, to become icons to rally opinion against the United States," Carney said.
Bin Laden's identity had been firmly established, Carney said, and Obama saw "no other compelling reason" to release them, given the potential for national security risks.
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