Bin Laden photos: Conservative group pushes for their release in US court

A conservative group is pushing for the release of pictures of Bin Laden's corpse in a US appeals court.

Judicial Watch presented oral arguments today in an appeal against the federal government demanding the pictures be released.

The group filed a brief that claims that releasing the photos is not a breach of national security and thus the pictures themselves should not be confidential.

They wrote, according to the Atlantic Wire: 

Defendants have failed to provide any evidence that all 52 images, including those depicting bin Laden’s burial at sea, pertain to “foreign activities of the United States.” Defendants also have failed to provide any evidence that images depicting the burial at sea actually pertain to “intelligence activities.” Nor have they demonstrated that the release of images of a somber, dignified burial at sea reasonably could be expected to cause identifiable or describable exceptionally grave damage to national security.

The group's lawyer said that photos of Bin Laden's sea burial would not harm US national security nor inflame Muslims.

He did not say the same for the photos of Bin Laden's bloodied body in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Judges at the US Court of Appeals did not say how they would rule but appeared skeptical, reported USA Today.

They questioned why the government would release the photos and warned that doing so might fuel terrorist propaganda.

The government won an earlier ruling to keep the photos confidential by citing national security reasons, said CNN.