Appeals court to consider release of photos of bin Laden's body

[NYC Liberal]

Source: CNN

A federal appeals court will consider Thursday whether photos of Osama bin Laden's body should be released.

Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group pushing for the release, will present arguments before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington.

"President Obama is asking the courts to rewrite (the Freedom of Information Act) to allow his administration to withhold documents simply because their disclosure may cause controversy," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement.

Debates over whether to release the photos of the al Qaeda leader have raged in some quarters ever since the May 2011 raid in Pakistan that left him dead.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/10/world/bin-laden-photos/index.html?on.cnn=1

[Robb]

1. Messy. They should be released, and it will suck a lot to do it.

[Botany]

2. Judicial Watch is just doing this to be a pain in the ass to the POTUS

This very well could inflame Islamic extremists to do some kind of violent
act some place in the world. Releasing the pictures could also feed the
morbid curiosity of some sick puppies too.

Dumping bin Laden's body into the ocean and not releasing the pictures of
what he looked like after he was killed was the right thing to do and this is
just the act of Obama haters who care little about any sort of blow back that
might come from releasing the grisly images.

[MADem]

3. Morbid curiosity is fine, it's the other stuff that is problematic. And blow back is a problem.

Kidnappings, bombings, assorted acts of terror--all in the name of revenge for this particular death.

It will be a gift that keeps on giving, because once those images are out there, they can't be pulled back. They can be waved about, like a bloody shirt, to inflame the masses and create a sense of high dudgeon.

[whatchamacallit]

10. Right... simple evidence "would escalate terrorism", but a Hollywood Blockbuster

enshrining the event, wouldn't. The priests of the war on terror thank you for your faith.

[Tempest]

4. So it's okay for us to do it, but not them?

I still remember the dust up from the release of the pictures of the four dead contractors in Iraq by the foreign media.

[SemperEadem]

7. I agree...

when the press over there starts releasing pictures of dead service men and other American ngo's, then we'll see about the wisdom of this. We can't even show pictures of the damage and aftermath of war on our tv screens in this country, the news is so fucking Disney-ized.

I was watching Oliver Stone's documentary "The real history of the US" and at first I was stunned at the images of dead people by the hundreds until I remembered that our news whitewashes everything and spoon feeds us what they want us to know, which keeps people ignorant of the fact that war is hell and death by armed militias is heinous. I, too, remember how people howled not only at the contractors in Iraq, but also of what they did to those soldiers who died in that Somalia helicopter crash. The difference being, no one in this country is going to run to commit to joining a jihad squad, strap bombs to themselves and run into a group of people and detonate themselves.

[Tempest]

8. I watched the reporting live from Vietnam

And that's why we have a media blackout regarding war now.

If Americans saw what was really going on in Iraq while it was happening, we would have been out years ago.

[SemperEadem]

9. precisely

[cynzke]

5. Gee.....

What could go wrong?

Ironic, the right will do anything to deny Obama's role in Osama's death and at the same time wants photos of the body.

[SemperEadem]

6. judicial watch

is doing the right wing's bidding. Plain and simple.

[whatchamacallit]

11. Bullshit

I don't care who asks for it, as Americans we deserve more than "trust us" when it comes to matters that shape our laws and destinies.

[SemperEadem]

12. like I care

if you dont' agree..

judicial watch is doing the right wing's bidding...