In July of 2003, Uday and Qusay Hussein, the notorious sons of the then recently deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, were killed in a U.S. raid in Mosul. The two men were the pariahs of the nation, feared for their unbreakable loyalty to their father's regime and despised for their merciless brutality towards the Iraqi people. When news of their deaths first began spreading across Iraq, no one believed it. There must have been some terrible mistake, they thought. There was no way Uday and Qusay were simply gunned down. It was a case of mistaken identity, or the U.S. was fabricating the whole story just to bolster support for the invasion. In their minds, some type of physical evidence was needed to validate the deaths.
Soon after their deaths, the Bush administration quelled any skepticism surrounding the raid by releasing photos of Uday and Qusay's bodies as they appeared immediately after the raid. Later on they released additional photographs of the bodies after autopsies were conducted on them. The photos were graphic, showing the the bloodied and dirtied corpses of the two monsters, but they quelled skepticism and ended debate over whether they were still alive somewhere, plotting their eventual re-ascendance to unquestioned power over the nation.
Fast forward to 2011, and we have a similar, yet arguably much more significant, scenario unfolding. Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Al Qaeda terror network and mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, is finally dead after a 10 year manhunt. He was gunned down in a highly sophisticated operation by U.S. Navy SEALS and the CIA in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The man who killed so many innocent people in numerous attacks had his demonic life terminated by a single bullet to the head. After the raid was conducted, facial recognition software and DNA tests verified that the man killed was indeed bin Laden. Numerous photographs of his mangled corpse were also taken, but will not be released to the public according to President Obama. Already, skepticism is being expressed by Middle Eastern Muslims, as well as some Americans.
Even without the death photos of bin Laden available, other photographic evidence of his death is certainly available. Photos from the White House situation room show a concerned and stone faced collection of the nation's most powerful individuals watching the raid occur in real time. Photos from inside the bin Laden compound post-raid have shown the bodies of other people who were living there. Other photos show the remnants of one of the helicopters that made a crash landing at the compound, a helicopter that appears to be a highly sophisticated and secretive stealth model that would be invisible on radar. These pictures, along with the DNA evidence, the supposed statements by bin Laden's wife that initially identified him, and the deafening silence by other radical Islamists, should leave us no doubts that Osama bin Laden no longer exists.
However, when it comes to the human psyche, it is often not that simple. In a high tech world where stories, images, and words can be manipulated so easily and efficiently, skepticism and cynicism is commonly directed at any official story without real, definitive proof. "Doubting Thomas Syndrome" is a phrase that describes it nicely. A person may have every reason to believe something is true, but without physical or visual evidence, they simply cannot find closure. This is a common phenomenon when famous individuals are killed or pass away. People such as the , Adolf Hitler, Elvis Presley, Tupac Shakur, and even Michael Jackson died suddenly without any definitive evidence presented to prove it. Of course, there are the autopsies and funerals and family testimonials, but in some people's minds, there are individuals who simply can't die. In bin Laden's case, we know there are photos available, so they should be released if only to prevent him from ending up on a beach in Bermuda drinking martinis for the next 50 years. The wild nonsense needs to be silenced quickly. It settled the controversy surrounding the death of the Hussein brothers, so it should work for bin Laden as well.
However, this is not simply an issue regarding conspiracies and hearsay. It is also about the free flow of information that should be in the public domain. Too often is important and pertinent information stifled in the name of national security. In an interview with President Obama set to air on "60 Minutes" this coming Sunday, he says that “We don’t need to spike the football and I think that given the graphic nature of these photos, it would create some national security risk.” We don't trot out this stuff as trophies." He also went on to say that "Imagine how the American people would react if Al Qaeda killed one of our troops or military leaders, and put photos of the body on the internet."
First off, whether we release the photos or not, our national security will be at an increased risk now that we have killed bin Laden. Releasing the photos is ultimately inconsequential to our security: If we release them, the radicals will hate us. If we don't, the radicals will still hate us. Secondly, Al Qadea has videotaped, photographed, and celebrated in the deaths of many Americans, including Nick Berg, Jack Hensley, and Daniel Pearl. Implying that we would somehow be sinking to a lower level than Al Qadea is absurd and misinformed. Plus, the aforementioned Americans were completely innocent, bin Laden was a mass murderer.
The death of Osama bin Laden closes an important chapter in the War on Terror. His death photographs should be released as historical evidence of the mission that killed the 9/11 mastermind. If people don't want to look at because of its grotesque and disturbing nature, they don't have to. The government should not be babying its citizens, and shielding them due to "national security" concerns is a complete cop-out. With all of the deep hatred already directed at us by the Islamic radicals, releasing the photographs would only be a small drop in their hate bucket. In the name of sanity and maturity, Mr.President, release the photos.
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