Bin Laden death photos to be shown to some members of Congress

Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee, as well as those in the equivalent House committees, will be allowed to view the photographs taken of Osama bin Laden after he was killed, a U.S. official told reporters Tuesday.


The viewings will take place at CIA headquarters in northern Virginia at a time to be decided, the official said.

U.S. Navy SEALs killed the al Qaeda leader last week in an attack on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, confirmed that the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee would be give the opportunity.

Asked whether she planned to avail herself of it, she told reporters, "I actually haven't thought much about it, but I likely will."

Feinstein is chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
President Barack Obama decided on Wednesday that he would not release photos of the body.

"It is not in our national security interest ... to allow these images to become icons to rally opinion against the United States," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters at the time. "We have no need to publish those photographs to establish that Osama bin Laden was killed."

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