Why Osama's Death Photos Will Stay Hidden

Remember last week when everyone was going crazy altering those Situation Room photos? Secretary of Defense Robert Gates sure does and he points to what seemed at the time like a harmless bit of Internet fun as the reason why the White House won't release the Osama bin Laden death photos:

One of the things that I think concerns Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton and I is the risk not only of the pictures themselves inflaming people who were bin Laden's adherents and radical extremists, but we were also worried about the potential for manipulation of those photos and doing things with those photos that would be pretty outrageous in terms of provoking a reaction that might in fact put our troops at greater risk in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

I have gotten from friends all over the country copies of the picture that was this iconic picture taken in the Situation Room while we were watching the operation. And they have been photoshopped in every way you can imagine, including putting you know, coming after the royal wedding, one of these had all of us in one of these big, wide-brimmed hats from the wedding. Another had various football players seated at the table that had been photoshopped in.

If Osama death photos ever leaked, would we see an altered version where he's wearing Princess Beatrice's Royal Wedding hat? Absolutely 100% guaranteed. You can't stop bored kids from messing around with their Photoshop.

 

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