Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe: Public Should See Some Bin Laden Death Photos

Lacie Lowry, News On 6

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe was the first member of Congress to view death photos of Osama bin Laden Wednesday, Inhofe's office said.

CIA director Leon Panetta showed Senator Inhofe photos of bin Laden's body today. Inhofe says he's the one who asked Panetta to reveal the photos to certain members of Congress.

Senator Inhofe saw 15 photographs of Osama Bin Laden. The first 12 were taken right after the attack on the compound, the other three were taken before burial when his body had been cleaned.

Senator Inhofe explained what he saw on CNN.

"One of the shots went through the ear and out through an eye socket, or through the eye socket and out through the ear and exploded, that was the kind of ordinance it was. That caused the brains to be hanging out of the eye socket," he said.

Senator Inhofe says he believed Bin Laden was dead before he saw the photos because of conversations he had with the military and that the photos simply justified that belief.

Absolutely, no question about it, a lot of people out there say, 'I want to see the photos.' I've already seen them, that was him, he's gone, he's history," Inhofe said.

Inhofe believes the quick burial was the best way to avoid bin Laden becoming a martyr. He thinks the public should get to see some of the burial photos.

"I still believe they should release these pictures, some of these pictures to the public," Inhofe said. "At least the ones during the cleanup period on the USS Vincent, that's just a personal opinion."

Some critics say the bin Laden photos shouldn't be made public because they will incite more violence from terrorists wanting to avenge his death.

"Well those people want to kill all of us anyway," Senator Inhofe said. "They've tried 32 times, maybe more than that, since 9/11 on very sophisticated plans to do inflict a lot of harm to America. We've stopped each one of them. So if they have a way of doing it, they're going to do it anyway."

Congressman Dan Boren of Oklahoma will also be viewing the Bin Laden photos on Thursday. He is a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

More Osama bin Laden Coverage.