President Barack Obama has decided not to release photographs of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's body, the White House said Wednesday. 
 
 The announcement came after a senior administration official told NBC News of the decision not to release post-mortem photos and Obama revealed the decision during an interview Wednesday with CBS' "60 Minutes." 
 
 The White House had been weighing the release of a photo, in part to offer proof that bin Laden was killed during a raid on his compound early Monday. However, officials had cautioned that the photo was gruesome and could prove inflammatory. 
 
 "It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence or as a propaganda tool. That's not who we are. We don’t trot out this stuff as trophies," Obama told CBS News, according to White House spokesman Jay Carney. 
 
 "We don't need to spike the football. And I think that, given the graphic nature of these photos, it would create some national security risk," the president said, according to Carney's account. 
 
 Asked about his response to some people in Pakistan saying the United States was lying about having killed bin Laden, Obama said: "The truth is that we were monitoring worldwide reaction. There is no doubt that bin Laden is dead. 
 
 "Certainly there is no doubt among al-Qaida members that he is dead. And so we don't think that a photograph in and of itself will make a difference. There are going to be folks who will deny it." 
 
 Carney said there would not be images released of bin Laden's burial at sea, either. 
 
 The president decided against making the images public after a spirited debate within government over the potential impact of their release. 
 
 Ever since word of bin Laden's death broke, the administration has tried to strike a balance between celebrating the success of the dramatic covert operation without unnecessarily offending sensitivities in the Muslim world. Officials stressed that Muslim traditions were followed before bin Laden's body was buried at sea, for example. 
 
 There was support for releasing the photos from both ends of the spectrum: Some family members of those who died in the 9-11 terror attacks thought it important to document bin Laden's death, as did some skeptics in the Arab world who doubted his demise in the absence of convincing evidence. 
 
 But the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican, said in advance of Obama's decision that he was concerned that the photographic images could be seen as a "trophy" that would inflame U.S. critics and makes it harder for members of the American military deployed overseas to do their job. 
 
 "Conspiracy theorists around the world will just claim the photos are doctored anyway," Rogers told CBS News, "and there is a real risk that releasing the photos will only serve to inflame public opinion in the Middle East." 
 
 Democratic House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said "there is no end served by releasing a picture of someone who has been killed. I think there is absolute proof that Osama bin Laden was in fact the person that was taken into custody... killed in the firefight." 
 
 Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday that not releasing the photos is "a mistake" and will only prolong the debate over whether bin Laden is dead. 
 
 "The whole purpose of sending our soldiers into the compound, rather than an aerial bombardment, was to obtain indisputable proof of bin Laden's death," Graham said. "I know bin Laden is dead. But the best way to protect and defend our interests overseas is to prove that fact to the rest of the world." 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., backed Obama's decision, NBC News reported. 
 
 "I agree with President Obama that if there's a choice between protecting the security of our military and intelligence personnel and disproving conspiracy theories, it's an easy call," Reid said in a prepared statement. "The evidence collected leaves no doubt that Osama bin Laden is dead." 
 
 The photos have been described by several sources as gruesome. One shows part of the skull blown off, those sources say. A U.S. official said one consideration is that the photo also shows exposed brain matter. 
 
 Sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the photo is still part of a classified investigation. 
 
 The president made his decision as the Navy SEALS involved in the daring raid in Pakistan arrived in the U.S. for debriefing, and U.S. officials began to comb through the intelligence trove of computer files, flash drives, DVDs and documents that the commandos hauled out of the terrorist's hideaway. 
 
 Bin Laden had about 500 euros sewn into his clothes when he was killed and had phone numbers on him when he was killed, U.S. officials said, a possible indication that bin Laden was ready to flee the compound on short notice. 
 
 The decision comes a day after CIA director Leon Panetta said that a photo proving the death of bin Laden "would be presented to the public," but the comment quickly drew a response from the White House saying no decision has yet been made. 
 
 "The bottom line is that, you know, we got bin Laden and I think we have to reveal to the rest of the world the fact that we were able to get him and kill him," Panetta said in an interview with Nightly News. 
 
 Panetta said the photos leave no question that bin Laden was killed. "Obviously I've seen those photographs," he said. "We've analyzed them and there's no question that it's bin Laden." 
 
 In July 2003, the U.S. took heat but also quieted most conspiracy theorists by releasing graphic photos of the corpses of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's two powerful sons to prove American forces had killed them. 
 
 So far, the U.S. has cited evidence that satisfied the Navy SEAL force, and at least most of the world, that they had the right man in Abbottabad, Pakistan. 
 
 The helicopter-borne raiding squad that swarmed the luxury compound identified bin Laden by appearance. A woman in the compound who was identified as his wife was said to have called out bin Laden's name in the melee. 
 
 Officials produced a quick DNA match from his remains that they said established bin Laden's identity, even absent the other techniques, with 99.9 percent certainty. U.S. officials also said bin Laden was identified through photo comparisons and other methods. ||||| President Barack Obama ordered grisly photographs of Osama bin Laden in death sealed from public view on Wednesday, declaring, "We don't need to spike the football" in triumph after this week's daring middle-of-the-night raid. The terrorist leader was killed by American commandos who burst into his room and feared he was reaching for a nearby weapon, U.S. officials said. 
 
 Pakistani security officers stand guard near the perimeter of the compound of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, May 4, 2011. Many of the residents of Abbottabad seem... (Associated Press) 
 
 White House Press Secretary Jay Carney tells reporters that President Barack Obama will not release photos of Osama bin Laden's body, Wednesday, May 4, 2011, during the daily briefing at the White House... (Associated Press) 
 
 The National September 11 Memorial and Museum is under construction, lower right, Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at the World Trade Center site in New York. President Barack Obama will meet at the memorial Thursday... (Associated Press) 
 
 Local residents walk past the compound of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, May 4, 2011. The residents of Abbottabad seem to be confused and suspicious about the killing... (Associated Press) 
 
 Several weapons were found in the room where the terror chief died, including AK-47 assault rifles and side arms, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they offered the most recent in a series of increasingly detailed and sometimes-shifting accounts of bin Laden's final minutes after a decade on the run. 
 
 Obama said releasing the photographs taken by the Navy SEAL raiders was "not who we are" as a country. Though some may deny his death, "the fact of the matter is you will not see bin Laden walking this earth again," the president said in an interview taped for CBS' "60 Minutes." 
 
 He said any release of the photos could become a propaganda tool for bin Laden's adherents eager to incite violence. 
 
 White House press secretary Jay Carney said the president's decision applied to photographs of bin Laden, said to show a portion of his skull blown away from a gunshot wound to the area of his left eye, as well as to a video recording of his burial several hours later in the North Arabian Sea. 
 
 The president made no public remarks during the day about the raid, apart from the taped interview. But he arranged a visit for Thursday to ground zero in Manhattan, where the World Trade Center twin towers once stood. 
 
 After two days of shifting accounts of the dramatic raid, Carney said he would no longer provide details of the 40-minute operation by the team of elite Navy SEALs. That left unresolved numerous mysteries, prominent among them an exact accounting of bin Laden's demise. Officials have said he was unarmed but resisted when an unknown number of commandos burst into his room inside the high-security compound. 
 
 The officials who gave the latest details said a U.S. commando grabbed a woman who charged toward the SEALs inside the room. They said the raiders were concerned that she might be wearing a suicide vest. 
 
 Administration officials have said bin Laden's body was identified by several means, including a DNA test. Members of Congress who received a briefing during the day said a sample from the body killed at the compound in Pakistan was compared to known DNA from bin Laden's mother and three sons. 
 
 After two days of speculation about releasing the photographs, there was no detectable public debate in the U.S. about the merits of the raid itself against the man behind the terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001. 
 
 Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress the operation was "entirely lawful and consistent with our values" and justified as "an action of national self-defense." Noting that bin Laden had admitted his involvement in the events of nearly a decade ago, he said, "It's lawful to target an enemy commander in the field." 
 
 Holder also said the team that carried out the raid had been trained to take bin Laden alive if he was willing to surrender. "It was a kill-or-capture mission," he said. "He made no attempt to surrender." 
 
 Bin Laden had evaded capture for nearly a decade, and officials said he had currency as well as two telephone numbers sewn into his clothing when he was killed, suggesting he was prepared to leave his surroundings on a moment's notice if he sensed danger. 
 
 Administration officials said the two dozen SEALs involved in the operation were back at their home base outside Virginia Beach, Va., and the extensive debriefing they underwent was complete. Saluted as heroes nationwide, they remained publicly unidentified because of security concerns. 
 
 In addition to bin Laden's body, the SEALs helicoptered out of the compound with computer files, flash drives, DVDs and documents that intelligence officials have begun analyzing in hopes the information will help them degrade or destroy the network bin Laden left behind. 
 
 In New York on Thursday, Carney said, Obama will lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site and hold a private meeting with relatives of some of the victims of the attacks, in which jetliners hijacked by terrorists were flown into the side of first one tower, then the other. 
 
 The buildings collapsed within minutes, dooming office workers as well as rescuers who had run in hoping to save them. 
 
 A few days later, then-President George W. Bush stood amid the rubble and spoke through a bullhorn. When one worker yelled, "I can't hear you," the president responded, "I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people _ and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!" 
 
 A decade _ and long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan later _ Obama said he had no intention of gloating. 
 
 Obama's decision not to release any photographs was unlikely to be the final word, though. 
 
 Some members of Congress have been shown at least one photo of bin Laden, and others have asked to see it, an indication of the intense interest generated by the raid. 
 
 The Associated Press on Monday requested through the Freedom of Information Act photos of bin Laden's body as well as other materials, including video taken by military personnel during the raid and on the USS Carl Vinson, the ship that conducted bin Laden's burial at sea. The government has 20 days to respond. 
 
 Some family members of those who died in the 9/11attacks have pressed to have the photographs released to document bin Laden's death, as have some skeptics in the Arab world. But many lawmakers and others expressed concern that the photographic images could be seen as a "trophy" that would inflame U.S. critics and make it harder for members of the American military deployed overseas to do their jobs. 
 
 Obama said he had discussed his decision with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates "and my intelligence teams, and they all agree." 
 
 Despite fears of revenge attacks, officials have yet to raise the national threat level. 
 
 The disclosure that bin Laden was living in relative comfort inside Pakistan in Abbottabad has provoked some administration officials and lawmakers to question the Pakistani government's commitment to the decade-long search for the terrorist leader. 
 
 Publicly, Pakistan issued a statement on Monday taking the U.S. to task for an "unauthorized unilateral action" that "cannot be taken as a rule." 
 
 But privately, according to one official, Pakistani Army chief Ashfaq Kayani offered congratulations when Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called to inform him after the operation, and urged a public release of the news. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the conversation. 
 
 The White House also announced Obama would visit Fort Campbell, Ky., on Friday to greet troops returning from Afghanistan, which the United States attacked in 2001 after its leaders refused to turn over members of the al-Qaida leadership living there. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Matt Apuzzo, Nedra Pickler, Nancy Benac, Jim Kuhnhenn, Julie Pace, Donna Cassata and Alan Fram contributed to this report.
– Osama bin Laden is dead, the New York Times reports. Few details yet, but the newspaper (and just about every other media outlet now) quotes a US official saying the al-Qaeda leader has been killed in a "targeted assault" by US forces. CNN says that it happened in Pakistan, and that other members of his family were killed as well. President Obama is to inform the nation tonight. A source tells AP that it's no guessing game: The US has bin Laden's body. (Update: Obama confirms to the nation.) The news of the 54-year-old bin Laden's death comes nearly 10 years after the 9/11 attacks. The development presumably leaves Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's No. 2, in charge—assuming he wasn't with bin Laden. (Click to read how the news set off spontaneous celebrations outside the White House.)