President Barack Obama's protestations that the photographs of Osama bin Laden's dead body are too gruesome for squeamish Americans have been swatted aside by the US defence secretary Robert Gates, who says the "primary reason" was because internet pranksters couldn't be trusted not to Photoshop Princess Beatrice's comical royal wedding hat onto his mutilated head.

At a meeting with US marines in North Carolina, Gates acknowledged that the pictures themselves – which have so far been offered for viewing only to members of Congress – would upset jihadist fans of Bin Laden. But he added, according to Politico, that "we were also worried about the potential for manipulation of those photos and doing things with those photos that would be pretty outrageous".

From The First Post 

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