Five months after killing Osama Bin Laden, the Obama administration is fighting to keep videos and photos of Bin Laden’s corpse classified. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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Citing national security concerns, U.S. Justice Department attorneys filed a motion late Monday seeking to dismiss a lawsuit by a conservative watchdog group requesting the images.
They are “wholly exempt from disclosure,” according to court documents obtained and reported on by The Associated Press.
Judicial Watch had filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking the imagery, and, in response, the CIA said it had located 52 photographs and video recordings of Bin Laden’s body.
Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, fired back that the Obama administration had made a “political decision” in withholding the imagery, according to the AP.
“We shouldn’t throw out our transparency laws because complying with them might offend terrorists,” Fitton said in a statement. “The historical record of Osama bin Laden’s death should be released to the American people as the law requires.”
The CIA and Pentagon had earlier denied another Freedom of Information Act request made by the AP for a raft of reports, photographic images and video concerning Bin Laden’s death.
The wire service had requested contingency plans for Bin Laden capture, reports on the performance of equipment used during the May 1 raid, and copies of DNA tests confirming his identity.
Along with the refusal was a letter from the CIA’s John Bennett, who wrote, “The public release of the responsive records would provide terrorist groups and other entities hostile to the United States with information to create propaganda.
“In turn, (the images) could be used to recruit, raise funds, inflame tensions, or rally support for causes and actions that reasonably could be expected to result in exceptionally grave damage to both the national defense and foreign relations of the United States.”
Bin Laden was killed by a Navy SEAL team in early May at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and his body was buried at sea.
Bennett, director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, added that many of the photos and video recordings are “quite graphic, as they depict the fatal bullet wound to (Bin Laden) and other similarly gruesome images of his corpse.”
