Ever since he was offered the chance to see photographic proof of Bin Laden’s death—and declined—I’ve been wondering why Washington Congressman Adam Smith would make such a choice.
Doesn’t it serve the country’s interests to have more people who can vouch for Bin Laden’s photographed deadness? Shouldn’t Smith, as the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, want to see what the armed services did in this case?
I’ll be asking him myself in a few moments, but while I’m waiting to speak to the Congressman I wonder: What do y’all think?
Why look at the photos? What would it prove?
People who don’t believe Bin Laden was killed will think the photos are a fake, even if Adam Smith views them and declares he is convinced they are real. And doubters aren’t completely baseless. Anyone in the Stranger’s graphics department could probably create a convincing fake Bin Laden photo in a few hours (or less).
DNA is much more compelling. Even if I weren’t a conspiracy theorist, it would certainly be easy enough to imagine a scenario where the Seal team shot some dude that looked vaguely like Bin Laden, but was a victim of mistaken identity. And the photos would look completely real, because there really would be a dead guy who really looked like Bin Laden. But it is the DNA evidence they collected that positively proves they killed the right guy. Sure, DNA isn’t nearly as sexy as dramatic dead-guy photos, but is far more compelling proof.
If I were on the House Armed Services Committee, I would demand to see the DNA evidence, and how it was handled. I wouldn’t give a shit about the photos.
There are two possibilities:
1) bin Laden is dead, as the U.S., Pakistan, and al Qaeda have said. The pictures are gruesome proof.
2) bin Laden is not dead, and the U.S., Pakistan, and al Qaeda are all in cahoots and lying about it. The pictures are fake.
What purpose would a congressman serve by viewing the photos? Unless he considers himself an expert in detecting faked photos and is qualified to detect the best fakes the U.S. government could do, there’s no purpose served other than looking like a ghoul.
@1 You’re only thinking about refuting conspiracy theorists. That isn’t the main function of congressional oversight. The House Armed Services Committee should be involved in this in whatever manner they can. I agree that practically it doesn’t make a difference if he views the photos or not, but his refusal seems really strange. Maybe he just has a weak stomach.
Option D: Who gives a shit?
What’s the point? They already have Republican senators going on television saying that they saw the photos and believed it was bin Laden. The only reason to see the photos at this point is just to see the photos out of curiosity and love for faces-of-death pictures.
@5 That’s why I would look. There’s nothing wrong with being curious, even morbidly curious. To me, he didn’t gain anything by his refusal except deny me my chance to see the photos vicariously through him.
It’s gotta be hard to hold a photograph with invisible hands.
The only important evidence that convinces me he isn’t dead is him not releasing any new proof of life videos.
Maybe he finds photos of human corpses disturbing, especially when death came by violence. I sure as hell do.
@8 Totally meant to say “that convinces me he IS dead” there.
The only even slightly viable alternative to him being dead and dumped in the sea is him being alive and in secret US custody, and even that’s almost ridiculously unlikely.
He’s not alive and free, because we would have gotten the gloating, laughing video by now. He’s not dead some time ago because a timed release of the announcement of his death would coincide with something a lot more relevant than Trump being a jackass.
Having him alive but in custody would be very risky politically. One misstep, one unfortunate leakage of information, would doom Obama politically. I don’t think he’d take that risk. If Republicans, who ordinarily would love to say that Obama is the second coming of Stalin, believe Osama was killed, and Al Queda has announced his death, I believe it. I think Rep. Smith actually took the high road. No proof is enough for conspiracy theorists, and he can legitimately argue that by seeing the pictures he is validating the idea that there could be some doubt as to the veracity of the story.