Bin Laden killing boosts Obama's approval rating
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United States president Barack Obama has seen a huge bounce in his approval ratings amid widespread praise for the killing of the Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Praise for the Obama administration has come from both sides of politics, with no denying it has delivered an important victory in the fight against terrorism.
The demise of bin Laden has revived debate about harsh interrogation techniques like waterboarding, with one detainee who was subjected to the treatment reportedly providing a crucial lead.
A new poll, commissioned by the New York Times and CBS News, shows support for Mr Obama has risen sharply, jumping 11 percentage points in one month.
Fifty-seven per cent of Americans now say they approve of the president's overall job performance and his handling of foreign policy.
It is a bigger popularity boost than the capture of Saddam Hussein gave to former US president George W Bush.
Mr Obama's bounce in the polls comes as US attorney-general Eric Holder says more names could be added to America's terrorism watch lists using information seized from the Pakistani compound where bin Laden was killed.
The commando team found what some intelligence sources are calling a treasure trove of technology: 10 computers, 10 mobile phones and around 100 flash drives.
Intelligence agencies are trawling through it all, hoping to uncover new information that will further damage Al Qaeda.
CIA chief Leon Panetta says the top priority is to see if any attacks were being planned.
There is less high-tech information too; bin Laden had 500 euros and two telephone numbers stitched into his clothes - evidence he was ready to make a quick getaway.
Graphic photos
Mr Obama has refused to release photos of bin Laden's corpse, saying releasing the grisly photos could potentially be used as a propaganda tool by Islamic extremists.
"You know we discussed this internally," Mr Obama told CBS.
"Keep in mind that we are absolutely certain this was him, we've done DNA sampling and testing, and so there is no doubt that we killed Osama bin Laden.
"It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence, as a propaganda tool. You know that's not who we are."
On occasion the Bush administration was willing to release grisly photos of enemy combatants killed by US forces.
Perhaps most notably the Pentagon released photos of Saddam Hussein's two sons Uday and Qusay who were killed in a raid in Iraq in 2003.
Three years later, a photo of Al Qaeda's Abu Musab Al Zarqawi was released after his safe-house in Iraq was bombed by US forces.
In both cases the Bush administration thought it was important to head off any doubts about whether or not they were really dead.
But there was concern about whether showing the photos might inflame tensions and lead to more violence.
Conspiracy theories
Already there are dozens of Facebook pages questioning whether bin Laden was really killed. And there is no shortage of conspiracy theorists who have labelled the whole thing a hoax.
Mr Obama himself has been the subject of conspiracy theorists who have long suggested that he was not born in the US and is therefore ineligible to hold the top job.
And even though he has released his birth certificate, many of the so-called birthers remain unconvinced.
US ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich has told ABC News 24 that trying to persuade people who refuse to be convinced of anything is no basis for foreign policy.
"It only has the potential to inflame and incite passions and potentially create more violence. It doesn't advance the debate," he said.
"And to the extent that there are conspiracy theorists who doubt the truth which is that this was bin Laden, we have absolute certainty it was bin Laden, you're never going to convince them anyway.
"There are still those people out there who think that people never landed on the moon and it doesn't matter if you show them videos and bring back pieces of the moon; they're still going to doubt it.
"So we're not going to make foreign policy about that. We're going to make foreign policy based on what's in the best interest of our security."
The LA Times is reporting that the White House ordered an analysis to gauge whether public disclosure might rally opponents of the US and produce a backlash.
The study found that in previous cases the release of similar photos caused more harm than good.
(source:abc.net.au)
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