You would think that President Obama would have learned his lesson about conspiracy theories with his arrogant foot dragging on the birth certificate release. Now that he has decided not to release the Osama death photos the conspiracy theorist are going to have a field day. President Obama was interviewed for “60 Minutes” segment set to air this Sunday.
“The risks of release outweigh the benefits,” the President told Steve Kroft in the interview. “Conspiracy theorists around the world will just claim the photos are doctored anyway, and there is a real risk that releasing the photos will only serve to inflame public opinion in the Middle East.”
As I have said over the past few days, Obama deserves a lot credit for pulling the trigger on this mission. But there have been a few slip ups that are designed towards the sensitivities of the Muslim folks, but only appears to be pandering. The whole burial at seas thing was a miscalculation of significant proportions. As it turns out, the burial at sea was not necessarily proper protocol. Technically, it was done correctly, but burial at sea is only used when someone dies at sea. Bin Laden didn’t die at sea. Plus, there could have been an independent party to verify the body was bin Laden that might have culled the conspiracy theorist herd a little.
Second mistake might be not releasing the photos. But there are pros and cons. Obama outlined the cons, especially the point about inflaming the Middle East. But the pros should have been considered a little more in depth. The photos would have provided nearly irrefutable proof that bin Laden had been killed by US Forces. But it could be those pros were weighed and since I am not a fly on the wall in the White House I have no way of telling whether it happened or not.
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