Graphic, certainly. Disturbing? Not in my book. This photo has not been
For a less grainy, slightly zoomed-out photo, click HERE.
UPDATE - Speculation is mounting that the photo may be a fake, due to the darkness of bin Laden's beard. We'll know the truth soon enough.
UPDATE II - Bin Laden's body has already been buried at sea, according to US officials:
A U.S. official says Osama bin Laden has been buried at sea.
Afterbin Laden was killed in a raid by U.S. forces in Pakistan, senioradministration officials said the body would be handled according toIslamic practice and tradition. That practice calls for the body to beburied within 24 hours, the official said. Finding a country willing toaccept the remains of the world's most wanted terrorist would have beendifficult, the official said. So the U.S. decided to bury him at sea.
Major mistake. OBL was/is a powerful cult figure who has vanished with no"death certificate." His body should have been displayed. The only thing more powerful than a living cult leader is one who disappears off the face of the earth. Making his body disappear was a deadly blunder that plays straight into the hero myth. Joseph Campbell couldn't have written a more terrible ending.
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UPDATE III - A short, but revealing, Reuters report:
The United States is conducting DNA testing on slain al Qaeda leaderOsama bin Laden and used facial recognition techniques to help identifyhim, a U.S. official said on Monday.
Bin Laden was identified by the assault force that killed him in afirefight in Pakistan in which he resisted and was shot in the head,the official said on condition of anonymity. Results of the DNA tests should be available in the next few days, the official told Reuters.
The strike force was on the ground for less than 40 minutes and theoperation was watched real-time by CIA Director Leon Panetta and otherintelligence officials in a conference room at CIA headquarters inLangley, Virginia, the official said. "When word came in that the operation was a success, CIA officials inthe conference room had a rather large applause," the official said.
Meanwhile, Fox News reports that the US does have photographic evidence of bin Laden's death -- but that those pictures have not yet been released:
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