The grisly shots of bin Laden’s corpse are now available to U.S. senators to look at if they wish, the CIA told two committees today. Plus, more updates below and full coverage of Osama bin Laden.
CIA: Raid Intelligece Yields New Lead Every Hour
The CIA said Tuesday that they have been able to glean new leads every hour from the massive cache of intelligence snatched from Osama bin Laden’s compound during the raid that killed him. A U.S. official said the SEAL team spent “at least half” of the 40 minutes spent on the ground at bin Laden’s compound gathering intelligence, since the target was killed “relatively early” in the operation. A task force ahs been working around-the-clock analyzing the data—videos and over 220 million pages of text—and has found leads on everything from other terrorist leaders to how bin Laden communicated with al Qaeda.
CIA Screening Osama Photos
President Obama has already decided not to release the grisly shots of bin Laden's corpse, but they're now available to a select few. The CIA informed U.S. senators in two Congressional committees Tuesday that the images will be available for their viewing if they wish to make an appointment. The photos reportedly show bin Laden with bullet wounds in his left eye and chest; Obama said that their release could stoke the furor of Islamic radicalists even further.
Obama: I'm Not Releasing the Photos
Bin Laden Sons: U.S. Broke the Law
The adult sons of Osama bin Laden have lashed out at the United States, saying it violated the law by killing an unarmed man and saying he should have been tried like Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic. “We maintain that arbitrary killing is not a solution to political problems,” a statement from the sons says. Omar bin Laden—who had repeatedly criticized his father—is the only son named in the statement, so it's unclear who else approved it. The statement further called for Pakistan to turn over bin Laden’s family members and requested a United Nations investigation.
'Crown Prince of Terror' Missing: Report
Could he have escaped? Pakistan security officials tell ABC News that Osama bin Laden's 19-year-old son Hamza—widely seen as an heir to his father, and dubbed the " crown prince of terror" by some—hasn't been seen since the U.S. raid that killed his father and older brother Khalid. It's not yet clear whether Hamza was in the compound at the time of the attack, but Pakistani investigators have reportedly agreed that someone is missing. The information apparently comes from one of bin Laden's widows, Yemeni Amal al-Sadah, who was shot in the leg during the raid.
Photos: Inside bin Laden’s Pakistan Compound
U.S. Was Ready to Fight Its Way Out of Pakistan
Given all the recent doubts about Pakistan’s allegiances, this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise: The U.S. had readied itself for a fight with Pakistan following the bin Laden raid—so much so that President Obama insisted the assault force be large enough to fight a hostile local police if necessary. The White House revealed Monday that there were two teams of specialists on standby if something went wrong: one to bury bin Laden if killed and a second made up of lawyers, interrogators and translators in case he was captured alive. One senior administration official said Monday that the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command had instructions to “avoid any confrontations if at all possible,” but they were authorized “to return fire to get out.” In the end, only the team to dispose of the body was needed.
Bin Laden’s Loyal Harem to Speak
After a bit of back of and forth, Pakistan has finally agreed to grant American officials access to Osama bin Laden’s three widows, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told CNN on Tuesday. U.S. authorities will reportedly be given “direct access,” sources say, meaning that they’ll be available for interviews rather than just submitted questions. Malik didn't give a timeline for the talks. But what will the women reveal? The Daily Beast’s David A. Graham breaks down what we know about the various women who vowed to spend their lives with the world’s most wanted man.
Report: Pakistan Secretly Agreed to bin Laden Raid
Tensions may be rising with Pakistan over the raid that killed Osama bin Laden—and President Obama apparently insisted that the Navy SEALs team be large enough to fight its way out against Pakistani police and troops—but had Pakistan agreed to allow exactly such a raid? The Guardian says that in 2003, Pakistan, under the leadership of Pervez Musharraf, agreed to let the U.S. kill bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahri, and the al Qaeda No. 3 in unilateral raids—and that both sides even agreed Pakistan would loudly protest the action afterward. "As far as our American friends are concerned, they have just implemented the agreement,” a Pakistani official says. A U.S. official says Pakistan’s protests are just the "public face" of the deal, adding, "We knew they would deny this stuff." Musharraf came out on Tuesday and denied such an arrangement as " absolutely baseless."
The deal sounds familiar, though. As New York magazine notes, Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani struck a similar note when talking about CIA drones in his country in a leaked U.S. embassy cable: "I don't care if they do it, as long as they get the right people. We'll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it."
U.S.: Pakistan Leaked CIA Names
U.S. officials said Monday that Pakistan's intelligence service leaked the name of the CIA station chief, as the country reels from worldwide criticism about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. U.S. officials acknowledged they had no proof behind their accusation, except that a similar incident occurred last year and the CIA was forced to pull their top agent out of Pakistan. The name, apparently misspelled, was aired by a private television station, ARY, on Friday and published in the right-wing newspaper The Nation on Saturday. Prime Minister Gilani acknowledged Monday that there had been an “intelligence failure” by not knowing that bin Laden had been hiding so close to the capital.
Clinton Airbrushed From Situation Room Photo
In a move that sparked outrage from all corners, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was deemed too "sexually suggestive" for Orthodox Hasidic newspaper Der Zeitung, which makes a point not to publish photos of any women on its front pages. So they PhotoShopped her out of the iconic Situation Room photo, in which she's surrounded by a bunch of all-powerful men watching the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound. Audrey Tomason, the counterterrorism analyst standing in the doorway and poking her head out to catch a glimpse of the raid, was also airbrushed out of the picture. Jewish Week's Rabbi Jason Miller pointed out that airbrushing women out of the picture violates the "Jewish legal principle of g'neivat da'at (deceit)."
Plus: Michelle Goldberg on why religious extremists want women out of the picture.