Carney read excerpts from the transcript of an interview Mr. Obama gave to CBS television earlier Wednesday. According to Carney, the president said he is concerned that making the gruesome images public could damage U.S. national security. "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 or as a propaganda tool. That is not who we are. We do not trot out this stuff as trophies," he said.
Carney said the president told the interviewer that there is no doubt among al-Qaida members that bin Laden is dead. The White House spokesman quoted Mr. Obama as saying, "You will not see Osama bin Laden walking on this Earth again."
Carney told reporters that the president has held his position on the issue very firmly, and that Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed with his decision to not to disclose the pictures.
But CIA Director Leon Panetta, whom Mr. Obama has chosen to be the next defense secretary, said publicly, several times before the decision was announced, that the photographs should be released.
Whether the president should make the pictures public also caused some disagreement on Capitol Hill.
Obama Will Not Release bin Laden Death Photo
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