NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Even before President Barack Obama outlined his decision not to release photos of a dead Osama bin Laden, news organizations began filing requests to have them made public under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.
The dispute pits national security concerns against the right of a free press. Which side prevails will turn on who is custodian of the photos and whether the photos are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. The first question — about custodianship — is critical. The Navy SEALs who descended on the al Qaeda leader’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and took the photos are part of the Defense Department. But the photos now appear to be held by the Central Intelligence Agency, which invited members of Congress to view them at its headquarters.
In seeking to resist a FOIA request, the administration could invoke the CIA Information Act of 1984, said Mark Zaid, a
