Federal Judge: Bin Laden Photos Can’t Be Released

'Legitimate' for Obama to Keep Pictures a Secret

Federal Judge James Boasberg today ruled that the photographs and video footage of Osama bin Laden’s killing could remain a secret, rejecting a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Judicial Watch to see them released.

The White House initially argued that the photos were “too gruesome” for the American public to see, and President Obama has vowed that they would never be released to the public.

As for the video, officials deny that it even exists, though they did later release photographs showing a large number of officials gleefully watching that same video. The repeated changes of the narrative, which started with a “highly volatile firefight” and eventually boiled down to shooting a sickly, unarmed man in the face, has had many eager to see what the evidence shows.

Instead Obama, as he so often does, played the “national security” card, insisting that the very act of seeing these photos would put the United States at risk. The judge, as likewise is so often the case, just shrugged and rubber stamped the argument.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.