A website known within the intelligence and armed services community goes on to argue that while the Navy SEALs may have felt it was 'morally, legally, and ethically appropriate to shoot the body a few times to ensure that he is really dead and no longer a threat,' that does not justify the extent of this damage.
'What happened on the Bin Laden raid is beyond excessive. The level of excess shown was not about making sure that Bin Laden was no longer a threat. The excess was pure self-indulgence,' author Jack Murphy writes.
At the time of the assassination, President Obama and his administration argued that they were justified in never releasing the photos of the dead body or the burial at sea because they could be used as propaganda for al Qaeda.
