TerrorismCourt upholds CIA’s decision not to release post-raid Bin Laden photos
A federal appeals court on Tuesday unanimously ruled that the U.S. government does not have to release more than fifty images and a video of Osama Bin Laden, taken after his death. “It is undisputed that the government is withholding the images not to shield wrongdoing or avoid embarrassment, but rather to prevent the killing of Americans and violence against American interests,” the judges said.
A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that the U.S. government does not have to release more than fifty images and a video of Osama Bin Laden, taken after his death.
The Washington Post reports that the images show a dead Bin Laden at his house in Pakistan, and a video shows the transport of Bin Laden’s body to a U.S. ship, and the body being dropped from the deck into the ocean.
The photos were taken so they would support the U.S. claim that the body was, in fact, that of Bin Laden.
Three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals, in a 14-page opinion, unanimously rejected a request by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, to have the photos released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Judicial Watch sued for the photographs and video from the raid two years ago in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after the al-Qaeda leader spent more than ten years hiding underground after the 9/11 attacks.
In their explanation of the ruling, the judges accepted the administration’s claim that the images – described as “quite graphic” and “gruesome” — could cause riots and other civil disobedience overseas, and could put American lives at risk.
“It is undisputed that the government is withholding the images not to shield wrongdoing or avoid embarrassment, but rather to prevent the killing of Americans and violence against American interests,” the opinion stated.
The judges said the risk of violence was strong enough to justify the decision by the CIA’s National Clandestine Service to classify the images and video as top secret. The CIA will now be able to hold the images under an exception to FOIA.
