White House: Releasing 'gruesome' bin Laden photo could be 'inflammatory'

Updated at 7:20 p.m. ET: CIA Director Leon Panetta tells MSNBC's Brian Williams that he believes a photo of bin Laden's corpse will "ultimately" be released "to reveal to the rest of the world" the proof that he was killed.

Watch that interview.

Updated at 3:31 p.m. ET: White House press secretary Jay Carney said that releasing a "gruesome" photograph of Osama bin Laden "could be inflammatory."

President Obama and White House officials are discussing whether to make a corpse photo public and if so, the most appropriate way to do it. Some officials are concerned about the "sensitivity" of releasing images, Carney said, according to AP.

Fox News reports there are two sets of photos: one from a military hangar where bin Laden's body was taken after the raid, the other from aboard the USS Carl Vinson before his burial at sea.

Details of where bin Laden was shot and how many time have fluctuated. The latest unofficial official accounting is that he was shot once above the left eye, blowing away part of his skull, and once in the chest.

Carney also said that contrary to White House reports Monday, bin Laden was not armed when he was killed and that one of his wives was not used as a "human shield" and killed. She was shot in a leg and wounded when she rushed the SEALS.

Our colleagues at The Oval has the latest White House narrative.

By John Bacon
USA TODAY

Updated at 12:08 p.m.: CNN reports that photos could be released later today, possibly through the CIA.

Updated at 9:03 a.m.: Politico reports that the raid photos of bin Laden are gruesome, complicating the White House decision on whether to release them.

The SEALs took fire on their way to the compound's third floor, where bin Laden had been sleeping, Politico says. The encounter with bin Laden lasted only seconds, and ended with a kill shot to his face. Officials also have images of bin Laden in a white shroud before his burial at sea.

Original post: A drum beat to release photos of Osama bin Laden's body has begun, starting with some U.S. senators at the top of the intelligence community on Capitol Hill.

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and the panel's top Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, said it "may be necessary" to release the photos to prove that the man who was killed and buried in the Arabian Sea was bin Laden.

The Obama administration, which identified the body using photo identification and DNA analysis, is considering releasing photos of the body, deputy national security adviser John Brennan said at a White House briefing.

Not everyone on Capitol Hill is convinced the release would be a good idea. The Washington Post reports that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., would say only that that "it's something that we're gonna have to work through."

"We want to make sure that we maintain dignity, if there was any, in Osama bin Laden, so that we don't inflame problems other places in the world, and still provide enough evidence that people are confident that it was Osama bin Laden," Rogers said.