Pawlenty: Obama Should Release bin Laden Photos

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty agrees with fellow possible Republican presidential candidates Ron Paul and Sarah Palin that President Barack Obama should release photos of Osama bin Laden's dead body.

He told a group of reporters Friday that al-Qaida’s admission that bin Laden is dead doesn’t mean the pictures shouldn’t be released, CNN.com reports.

"Beyond al-Qaida, there may be others who question the claim that bin laden was killed," Pawlenty said. "But that's not the only issue relating to the photographs. There is a public interest in the photographs.”

As for Obama, "I don't think the president needs to be the censor-in-chief, absent a clear national security need for it to be secret or confidential," Pawlenty said. "He was the one who said he wanted to have the most open and transparent government in the modern history of the country.”