Inhofe: Osama Pics 'Pretty Graphic'

Politico reports:

After viewing a dozen photos of Osama bin Laden’s corpse, Sen. Jim Inhofe said Thursday morning there is “no doubt” in his mind the al-Qaeda leader is dead and that some of the pictures should be released to the public.

The Oklahoma Republican checked his Blackberry at the door before being escorted into a conference room and left alone with photos of bin Laden’s body at CIA headquarters on Wednesday. Inhofe was the first senator to see the photos, which have been closely guarded by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The first set included nine “pretty graphic” photographs “in the first one minute after the hit” in bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Inhofe said. The photos were close-ups of bin Laden’s head and torso as he was lying on the ground. He had a salt-and-pepper beard, his chest was exposed and he was wearing an “undergarment.”

“It was hard to tell if the bullet went through his ear and out the eye socket or vice versa,” Inhofe told POLITICO in an interview. “There was head matter, appearing to be brains, coming out of the socket.”

Three other photos, taken when bin Laden was alive, were provided for comparison purposes.

The final three photos were taken aboard the U.S.S. Carl Vinson as bin Laden’s body was being prepared for burial at sea. Two of them were of bin Laden’s body being cleaned; the third was of his body being deposited into the North Arabian Sea.

“I thought in my own mind they should release to the public the ones of him on the U.S.S. Vinson,” Inhofe said. “First, he had been cleaned up, so it is not as offensive. And second, by him being cleaned up, it is much more obvious who it was.”