Newly-released email shows effort to shield bin Laden death photos

May 3: A view of Usama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. (AP)

A newly-released email shows that 11 days after the killing of terror leader Usama bin Laden, the U.S. military's top special operations officer ordered subordinates to destroy any photographs of the Al Qaeda founder's corpse or turn them over to the CIA.

The email was obtained by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch. It shows that Adm. William McRaven, who heads the U.S. Special Operations Command, told military officers on May 13, 2011, that photos of bin Laden's remains should have been sent to the CIA or already destroyed. Bin Laden was killed by a special operations team in Pakistan 11 days earlier.

McRaven's order came 10 days after The Associated Press asked for the photos and other documents under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.