White House Officials Debate Releasing Photographs of Bin Laden?s Corpse

Jake Tapper / ABCNews

The Obama administration has photographs of Osama bin Laden?s dead body and officials are debating what to do with them and whether they should be released to the public, officials tell ABC News.

?There?s no doubt it?s him,? says a US official who has seen the pictures and also reminds us that OBL was 6?4?.

The argument for releasing them: to ensure that the public knows and can appreciate that he’s dead. There is of course skepticism throughout the world that the US government claim that it killed bin Laden is true.

The argument against releasing the pictures: they?re gruesome. He has a massive head wound above his left eye where he took bullet, with brains and blood visible.

In July 2003, the US government released photographs of Saddam Hussein?s dead sons Uday and Qusay Hussain but not until after they?d been touched up by a mortician, making them look not quite real.