A photo purporting to depict a very dead Osama bin Laden has been proved to be a fake. Although it must be noted that only the photo is a fake and the man himself is very much a corpse, somewhere at the bottom of the ocean.

The image which shows a bloodied bin Laden with a bullet wound to the head, is in fact a composite of a photo of bin Laden taken in 1998 and an unknown corpse.

Apparently this very picture has been doing the rounds on the net for over two years, but that didn’t stop even very big news organisations like the Daily Mail, Times of London, Telegraph, Sun and Daily Mirror from using it. Even the Associated Press had it up on their site for a while.

The Daily Mail was one of the newspaper sites to publish the fake picture of Osama bin Laden’s body.
The US government is still deciding whether or not to release actual images from the scene and there is even speculation that some video footage of the raid may be released.

There are, however, some concerns that the release of the photos might stir anti-American sentiment. Apparently the photos are very gruesome, showing bin Laden with a head and chest wound. The head wound is above his left eye and is particularly grisly.

I personally think they will be made available. People like to see evidence that the bad guy is really dead. In many people’s minds, unless you can see brains leaking out, the monster is not dead.

[Source : abc News, New Zealand Herald, The Gaurdian]