Ex-Bush Official: Don’t Release Bin Laden Photos

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) _ A former No. 2 Defense Department official in President George W. Bush’s administration says he doesn’t see any good that would be served by releasing photographs to the public of Osama bin Laden’s corpse.

George England was Navy secretary and deputy Defense secretary in the second Bush administration. He told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Tuesday that President Barack Obama’s order for the raid that killed the al-Qaida leader was politically risky but courageous.

He also said he hopes Obama doesn’t release the bin Laden photos, saying he doesn’t “see many benefits of showing his body with a bullet in his eye, but I see several downsides.

In a later interview with The Associated Press, he said, “Who knows how people would react to it? … It could be inflammatory.”

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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