Bin Laden Photos Ruling to Determine Whether Death Photos Be Released to Public
A Freedom of Information Act request for the photos of Osama Bin Laden during and after the raid that took his life was examined on Thursday by federal judges.
The request was started by the conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch, but was previously denied by the Central Intelligence Agency.
"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," Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said in a statement on Thursday, according to ABC News.
Lawyers for Judicial Watch say that the government agency did not have sufficient grounds to deny their request for the classified images and were not specific on why the images have to be withheld.
"Why aren't those specific?" Judge Merrick Garland asked, according to CBS News.
Judge Garland is one of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington that Judicial Watch is appealing to in order to have to the controversial photos released. The other judges include Judith W. Rogers and Harry T. Edwards.
Freedom of Information Act requests were also made to the Defense Department who denied that any were actually received.
There are a few concerns about releasing the pictures. The government cited that the images could be used by the al Qaeda terrorist network for propaganda and to incite anti-American sentiment.
A declaration was made by the CIA's National Clandestine Service director John Bennett that said the images and video are "quite graphic, as they depict the fatal bullet wound to and other similarly gruesome images of his corpse," according to The Associated Press.
The pictures of the deceased terrorist leader were taken at the Abbottabad compound in Pakistan where he was killed by Navy SEAL Team Six.
Bin Laden was later buried at sea from a secret ceremony on the USS Carl Vinson.
The film "Zero Dark Thirty" was released on Friday which depicts the events surrounding the death of Bin Laden.
