U.S. not to release bin Laden photo

Speaking on an American television news program, Obama said that he concluded that the images of bin Laden, bloodied by gunshots, could do more to incite tensions in the Muslim world, posing problems for America’s national security, than persuade skeptics.

“We don't trot out this stuff as trophies,” Obama told Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes on CBS News. “That's not who we are,” he said.

The President said that he wanted 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.”

Obama’s stand came even after Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Leon E Panetta, said he did not think “there was any question that ultimately a photograph would be presented to the public.”

Officials in the Pentagon and the State Department, however, were divided over releasing the 'gruesome' photos of bin Laden’s bloodied corpse. Some lawmakers and officials argued that releasing the photo could endanger U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.