By Dan Satherley
Last week US President Barack Obama, under immense pressure from political opponents and conspiracy theorists, caved in and released his birth certificate, proving once and for all he was indeed born in the US, and eligible to be president.
Now he faces another, not dissimilar dilemma – whether to release photos that depict deceased terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in the minutes following his death at the hands of US Navy SEALs earlier this week.
But this time, he might not have a choice.
Conservative groups and media organisations in the US have filed papers under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requesting release of photos and/or videos taken during the raid, and Republican presidential hopefuls such as Sarah Palin and Ron Paul have called on Obama to "stop pussyfooting around" and show them the smoking gun, so to speak.
The Associated Press, in putting in its request, said the Obama administration "has pledged to be the most transparent government in US history and to comply much more closely with the Freedom of Information Act than the Bush administration did".
The US government has 20 days to respond. If it does not, or rejects the application, the case could end up in court.
Conservative legal watchdog group Judicial Watch is prepared to sue for the images.
“This is arguably the most important military operation in our lifetimes," the group's president Tom Fitton told Washington news website thehill.com.
“We are prepared to sue if they don’t respond as they are supposed to under the law. I have not heard anything from the president that would provide a lawful basis for not providing the photos."
Obama says releasing the photos, which allegedly show the former al-Qaida leader with bullet holes in his head and part of his skull missing, would incite violent reaction from Islamic extremists.
“It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence or as a propaganda tool,” Obama told 60 Minutes on Wednesday.
"We don't trot out this stuff as trophies."
Whether any legal challenge would see the images released depends not only on the court process, but who controls the images. If they are deemed to belong to the Defence Department or CIA, there is a chance the courts could rule in favour of the media and others who want conclusive proof bin Laden really is dead.
"I think that it's going to be a hard road," former Justice Department attorney Scott Hodes told the AP. "It's not inconceivable that a court is going to say to release them. But I think the government will fight because it's made its decision."
But crucially, the White House is exempt from the FOIA.
“If the photos in all forms were shipped over to the White House and placed on Obama’s desk, the Defence Department could respond to a subsequent FOIA request saying that it has no responsive records," says Daniel Metcalfe, former director of the Justice Department’s Office of Information and Privacy.
"If an agency does not have even custody of it by the time of the request, let alone control, then that’s it, game over.”
Slate.com journalist Jack Shafer argues passionately in favour of releasing at the very least, a photo of the dead bin Laden, largely because the government needs some certainty in its official version of events, something a photo would go a long way towards establishing.
"The press and the government had huge trouble agreeing exactly how the operation unfolded," writes Shafer. "Did bin Laden make a human shield of his wife? Was she killed? Did he shoot at the SEALs? Or did the SEALs summarily execute an unarmed man?
"If such an accepted narrative existed, it might be easier for the administration to predict how the photos would be received at home and overseas. But it's not the White House's business to control and manage news for the good of the nation based on some imagined worst-case reaction to events. That's Soviet thinking."
The lack of a photo, and the ever-changing narrative of how bin Laden's compound was infiltrated, has inspired – perhaps inevitably so – conspiracy theories he wasn't killed at all. But Obama says releasing the photo will not change anyone's mind.
"There is no doubt that Osama bin Laden is dead," Obama told 60 Minutes. "Certainly there is no doubt among al Qaeda members that he is dead. So 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 will not see bin Laden walking on this earth again."
Obama was applauded across the political spectrum in the US for taking out bin Laden, even by those who normally wouldn't be caught dead praising a Democrat president. But, echoing their calls to see his birth certificate, some Republicans are now demanding to see bin Laden's death photo.
"The whole purpose of sending our soldiers into the compound, rather than an aerial bombardment, was to obtain indisputable proof of bin Laden's death," said Senator Lindsay Graham, South Carolina.
Likely Republican presidential hopeful Sarah Palin tweeted her message to Obama, in typical Palin prose: "Show photo as warning to others seeking America's destruction. No pussy-footing around, no politicking, no drama; it's part of the mission."
Ron Paul and Tim Pawlenty have also said they'd like to see a photo, but fellow Republican hopeful Mitt Romney says it would only incite further violence.
Republican House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers also sided with Obama on the issue.
"The risks of release outweigh the benefits," he told CBS News. "Conspiracy theorists around the world will just claim the photos are doctored anyway, and there is a real risk that releasing the photos will only serve to inflame public opinion in the Middle East.
"Osama bin Laden is not a trophy - he is dead and let's now focus on continuing the fight until al Qaida has been eliminated."
Keeping wartime images secret, or at least unpublished, is widespread – that's why it's so uncommon to see photos of New Zealand's SAS troops in action, for example.
But in the last decade, audiences have witnessed a surfeit of images of war and human suffering – think September 11, the shambolic execution of Saddam Hussein, London 2005, or the current uprising in Syria, to name a few – whether on TV, in newspapers or on the internet.
Shafer argues if the public can handle that, they can handle seeing a photo of the perhaps most-hated man in the world.
Whatever the outcome of any court action, should it come to that, it's tempting to believe the images won't stay unseen for too long. Remember though, the US knew last year where in Pakistan Osama's compound was, and managed to keep it secret from the very country he was living in – one of their so-called allies in the War on Terror.
So if Obama doesn't want the photos released – and the courts don't make him – we could be waiting a very long time.
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