Photograph showing Al Qaeda terror network leader Osama bin Laden dead requested by AP under Freedom of information Act

The Atlantic wire announces that the Fourth Estate, represented by Associated Press, is determined to undo the decision of the highest representative of the First Estate (which, in a manner of speech, is the President, since we are not a monarchy) not to release the Osama kill photos. Atlantic wire announces that AP demands the pictures in the name of the Freedom of information act. The act also includes exemptions, including  “Information that is classified to protect national security.  The material must be properly classified under an Executive Order.” In short, if the president declares the photos classified for national security, nothing will come of it. At least for now…

The AP filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the photographic and video evidence taken during the raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.  The organization’s FOIA request included a reminder of the president’s campaign pledge and a plea to be more transparent than his predecessor. “The Obama White House ‘pledged to be the most transparent government in U.S. history,” wrote the AP,  “and to comply much more closely with the Freedom of Information Act than the Bush administration did.'”

Related: NPR Also at Odds with the White House on Bin Laden Photo

The president insists that releasing bin Laden’s photograph violates common decency and puts U.S. troops in harm’s ways. “We don’t trot out this stuff as trophies,” he told Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes. “I think that given the graphic nature of these photos, it would create some national security risk.” See the rest at the Atlantic Wire