newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Senior White House officials had been split on whether or not to release the death photos of Osama bin Laden, and President Barack Obama decided against it on Wednesday. But photos from the raid of the compound are now circulating in the press.

The Washington Post reports Reuters has said it bought the photos from an anonymous Pakistani security official who had entered the house in Abbottabad about an hour after the commando raid.

The earliest Reuters photo was dated May 2, 2:30 a.m., about an hour after the completion of the raid that killed bin Laden. Others were taken between 5:21 a.m. and 6:43 a.m.

Reuters.com says that the news service is confident the photos are authentic because details in the photos seem to be showing a wrecked helicopter, which matches those in photos taken on Monday.

One photo shows a computer cable and what appears to be a child's water pistol under the right shoulder of a dead man. And a pool of blood had formed under the man’s head.

Another picture shows a man with blood running from his nose across his right cheek and blood going across his chest.

A third photo shows a man in a T-shirt lying on his back in a large pool of blood which seems to be coming from a head wound.

According to CBS News, President Barack Obama told a “60 Minutes” interview yesterday that he had decided not to release the dead Bin Laden photos.

Thewrap.com reported that CIA head Leon Panetta had earlier said, "I think we have to reveal to the rest of the world the fact that we were able to get him and kill him."

Obama explained his thoughts to the network: “It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence. You know, we don't trot out this stuff as trophies. The fact of the matter is, you will not see bin Laden walking on this Earth again.”