POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

Breaking: Obama nixes ObL death photo release

And in making this decision, has guaranteed the complete apotheosis of bin Laden in the Middle East as well as other regions of the world.

In an interview with Steve Kroft for this Sunday's "60 Minutes," President Obama says he won't release post-mortem images of Osama bin Laden taken to prove his death.

Republican House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers agrees:

"The risks of release outweigh the benefits," Rogers said. "Conspiracy theorists around the world will just claim the photos are doctored anyway, and there is a real risk that releasing the photos will only serve to inflame public opinion in the Middle East."

"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,"

I don't think I can formulate a better reaction to this statement than ACE's guest-blogger DrewM:

Put aside the fact they do this whenever they can, how the fuck can any American...compare bin Laden to American servicemen and women?

As for our betters who say don't release the photos because it might inflame the Religion of Peace into a murderous rage (a state also known as "everyday")...everyone of you bastards better be on record either urging the withholding of or condemning the release of photos from Abu Ghraib.

And FTR- I don't need to see the photos to believe he's dead. I want want the world to see this is what happens to you when you kill Americans.

Hear, hear Drew.  I don't need to see the photos either, but I believe that there are others who do.  So does "Froggy" at BlackFive:

This is also curious from the standpoint of Islamic sensitivity, which is clearly foremost in the mind of this White House. Only Obama could go out of his way to emphasize the respect for the Islamic burial process only to tee up perfectly the conditions under which conspiracy theories are born. The primitive peoples of the middle eastare perhaps the most gullible ethnic group on the planet. When I was in Iraq, there was a widely held belief thatVBIEDs were manufactured on our US military base inRamadi, and that the guys with beards (like me) were actually Israeli agents driving in HMMVs with the Star of David on the door. I shit you not.

Make sure you read the BlackFive piece in it's entirety, as it has bearing on Dan's earlier post about the "evolving" narrative of the SEAL team's raid this past Sunday.  Our pal Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom also has an excellent post regarding the "Tale of two spins".

Sadly, I suspect the possibility of permanently elevating ObL to a near mythical stature was disregaded in favor of a more self-serving domestic political calculus.

By refusing to release the photos the President has effectively spawned a new conspiracy-theorist group, probably to be derisively referred to as "Deathers".  And not only will he be able to brush aside any questions regarding the judiciousness of this decision vis-a-vis the predilection for conspiracy theories by "the Arab street", but also ones of his much vaunted dedication to "Transparency!", by comparing any incredulous folks to "Birthers".

As an added bonus, it will surely provide numerous opportunities in the future for him to remind everyone, with a no doubt casual and offhanded posture, the he got bin Laden; without it appearing to be shameless self-promotion.  Why the campaign rhetoric nearly writes itself...

In choosing this course, I believe that The President has sacrificed the national interests for his own partisan ones-again; enabled by GOP useful idiots who fear anything less than an appearance of "comity" and gentlemanly bi-partisanship in the wake of ObL's demise.

What do you think, kind reader?

UPDATE: Many thanks to Stacy McCain for including us into his very comprehensive round-up of reactions to the President's decision.

UPDATE II: Also we are grateful to The Lonely Conservative for linking to our humble opinions when posting on this subject.

UPDATE III: Jeff Goldstein characterizes the matter in his own inimitable and pithy fashion:

And now Obama is saying he won’t release the proof of death he claimed was so vital — and Andrea Mitchell, among others, is satisfied with this: the government has all the proof it needs, so why show anyone else? Per Mitchell, we’re inherently to trust the government. Because it isn’t a Republican in the White House. So it must be good and righteous.

And besides, we don’t want to offend Muslim sensibilities. After all, there’s no telling how these inherently peaceful people might react to photos of a dead bin Laden, who doesn’t represent Islam in any way. Right?

Check it out for yourself.

Rocketman

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