Fake Bin Laden Photos Fool Some Lawmakers
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President Obama has said he won't release a photo of a dead Usama bin Laden, but that didn't stop several lawmakers from weighing in on whether it should be released after they claimed to have seen copies themselves.
But there's only one problem: At least some of those photos weren't the real McCoy.
Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., told the Fox affiliate in Boston that he was duped by fake pictures of bin Laden that at first convinced him that such photos should not be released to the public.
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"The photo that I saw and that a lot of other people saw is not authentic," he said.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. had argued after seeing what she thought was an actual photo of bin Laden that the image wasn't too gruesome for the public to see.
But then she backtracked.
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"While I was shown a photo by another senator of what appeared to be a deceased Usama bin Laden, I do not know if it was authentic," she said in a statement. "However, I do believe a photo of the deal Al Qaeda leader should be released."
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. chairman of the intelligence committee, expressed opposition to releasing the photo after he viewed it and he's confident that it was authentic.
But his committee cannot say where the photo originated and they cannot compare the photo that Rogers has seen with the duped photo that Ayotte saw.
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Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., who believes the image will leak at some point regardless of the administration's decision, wouldn't say who showed him the digital photo that he viewed.
"The photo I saw was shown to me by somebody who represented it to me as bin Laden after he was shot," he said. "It looked like it was official."
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday that he wasn't aware of any photos being show to lawmakers. And Sen. Diane Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who opposes releasing the image, said, "No members have been shown the photo."
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Fox News' Trish Turner and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.