The public will ultimately see a photo of a dead Osama bin Laden, CIA Chief Leon Panetta told NBC’s Brian Williams in an interview.
“The government obviously has been talking about how best to do this, but I don’t think there’s — there was any question that ultimately a photograph would be presented to the public,” Panetta said, according to a transcript of the interview. “Obviously I’ve seen those photographs. We’ve analyzed them and there’s no question that it’s Bin Laden.”
“I think there’s no question that there were concerns and there were questions that had to be debated about just exactly question kind of impact — would these photos have,” Panetta continued. “But the bottom line is that, you know, we got Bin Laden and I think we have to reveal to the rest of the world the fact that we were able to get him and kill him.”
But the White House said Tuesday that they were still debating whether to release the photos.
Ryan J. Reilly
Ryan J. Reilly is a D.C.-based reporter for TPM. Prior to joining TPM, he worked for a news website covering the Justice Department and was a researcher for Bloomberg News. His email address is ryan(at)talkingpointsmemo.com.
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