We don't trot out death photos as trophies: Obama

"We don't trot out this stuff as trophies," President Barack Obama said while announcing his decision against releasing the death photos of Osama bin Laden killed in US surgical strikes.

Obama's announcement came amid a raging debate within and outside the US over whether or not the photos of the dead body of the al Qaeda chief should be made public.

The President decided against the move since it would incite violence and help propagandists, his spokesman Jay Carney said while reading out Obama's remarks from the transcript of yesterday's interview to further explain the controversial choice.

The decision was announced by Obama in his interview to the CBS news which was recorded yesterday.

He added that it was important to make sure that very graphic photos of a man who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence or as a propaganda tool.

"That's not who we are. We don't trot out this stuff as trophies," Obama said.

"The fact of the matter is this was somebody who was deserving of the justice that he received, and I think Americans and people around the world are glad that he is gone.

"But we don't need to spike the football, and I think that, given the graphic nature of these photos, it would create some national security risk, and I've discussed this with Bob Gates and Hillary Clinton and my intelligence teams, and they all agree," Obama said, adding that he has seen those pictures.

He said now that the al Qaeda leader is dead a photograph is not going to make any difference.

Reacting to the picture that he saw of bin Laden, Obama said: "It was him".

During the interview, Obama said there is no doubt that bin Laden was dead and the world would never see him and that the post-mortem images of the dead body would not be released.

"This is fact which is now known to the world and to his supporters, however, there will still be some who would still not believe this," the President argued.

"We discussed this internally. Keep in mind that we are absolutely certain that this was him. We've done DNA sampling and testing. So there was no doubt that we killed Osama bin Laden," Obama was quoted as saying by Carney in the CBS interview.

During the interview, according to Carney, Obama said the decision in this regard was taken following consultations with his top national security advisors including the Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.