WASHINGTON – The Navy SEAL who is believed to have killed Osama Bin Ladenhas declared that all the available photos of the body are fake, and hascalled on the US government to release the real images. In a recentinterview Robert O’Neill offered new details about the Abbottabad raid thatcontradict other first-hand accounts.
In May 2011 US Navy SEALs raided a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan where theyshot and killed Osama Bin Laden. The man who pulled the trigger has echoedclaims that the photos published by media outlets are all fake, and thatthere are at least 20 pictures that the US government are withholdingfrom the public.
O’Neill raised his objections while talking with El Mundolink>to promotehis forthcoming book *The Operator*, the second book to be publishedabout the Abbottabad raid by one of the men who were there. He commentedon the widely-circulated photos purporting to be of Bin Laden’s corpse,‘Those that have been published to date are fake’, elaborating, Sputnikreported.
“It’s something that I don’t mention in my book, and I would like to saysomething. I think someone in Washington should start posting some of thephotos we took in Abbottabad. There were at least 20, taken with Pentaxcameras.”
However, Freedom of Information requests to the Pentagon have been refused,on the grounds the DoD cannot find any copies of any photographs of BinLaden’s corpse. This is because all the pictures were transferred to theCIA shortly after the raid. An emaillink>fromVADMWilliam McRaven, commander of the Pentagon’s Joint Special OperationsCommand, sent just days after the raid told the SEALs that:
“One particular item that I want to emphasize is photos; particularly UBLsremains. At this point — all photos should have been turned over to theCIA; if you still have them destroy them immediately or get them to the[redacted].”
The conservative governmental watchdog Judicial Watch filed a lawsuitagainst the CIA to try to get access to these pictures but in 2012link>ajudge ruled in the CIA’s favour.
The Agency argued that releasing the photos might compromise secret CIAmethods and sources, even though Owen’s book describes the SEALs simplytaking pictures with ordinary cameras. In 2013 an appeals court upheldlink>theCIA’s refusal to release the photos, accepting the Obama administration’sargument that making them public could result in reprisals and revengeattacks against Americans.