Does a grainy green night vision photo show Osama bin Laden after he was shot and killed by U.S. Navy SEALs? No, that's not true: This image was made by adding bin Laden's face to a still image taken from the movie "Black Hawk Down." This fake image began circulating online shortly after his death was reported.
The image appeared in a post (archived here) by the @AHIRSTAN account on X on Sept. 11, 2026. It read:
Osama bin Laden killed by the US Navy Seals
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @AHIRSTAN on X.)
Many years have passed since this fake image first surfaced. LiveLeak, the video-sharing website where this image may have first appeared, ceased operation in 2021. A May 6, 2011, archive of a LiveLeak post made on May 3, 2011, contains a retraction, but the archive does not show the image in question. It reads:
Osama Bin Laden Death Photo?
Part of channel(s): Death of Osama bin Laden (current event)
Here is the devil - dead...
Click to view image: '9440b6283d24-osama_bin_laden_death_picture.jpg'
Note: Liveleak cannot confirm the authenticity of this Osama Bin Laden dead picture
* Liveleak Staff Update 1.10pm EST: This image has been determined to be a fake. See: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=964_1304445424
Articles referring to the LiveLeak retraction make it clear this is the image in question. A May 4, 2011, piece in The New York Times (archived here) covers issues surrounding the question of photos of bin Laden dead. First, it reported that President Barack Obama decided that the photos would not be made public. Then the article reviewed several fake images circulating, including the image in question, writing:
Another widely seen fake, which was apparently a mashup of Bin Laden and 'Black Hawk Down,' appeared on Liveleak under the comment: 'Here is the devil -- dead ...' More cautiously, the photo caption said, "Liveleak cannot confirm the authenticity of this Osama bin Laden dead picture." And a retraction has since been issued.
Lead Stories was able to locate the scene in question in "Black Hawk Down." It occurs just after two hours, eight minutes in the extended cut of the movie. The scene shows a team dismantling the cockpit of the downed Super Six-One helicopter in order to extract the body of pilot Clifton "Elvis" Wolcott. The movie is based on a true story that took place during the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia. Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011. The two incidents are unrelated.
The Lead Stories composite image below shows the scene from the movie with actor Jeremy Piven playing Wolcott (left). In the inset, the face of bin Laden has been superimposed over the face of Piven (right). Lead Stories was not able to find a publicly available copy of this movie scene, but a two-second clip is hosted on getyarn.io (archived here).
(Image source: screenshot from getyarn.io and post by @AHIRSTAN on X.)
There are photos that were taken of bin Laden's dead body, but they have never been made public. There are a few people who have seen these photos and remarked publicly on them. A May 22, 2011, Times-Standard news article (archived here) was published on California Rep. Mike Thompson's website. Thompson, then a member of the House Intelligence Committee who had viewed the photos, said:
I don't think we should be doing anything that puts the men and women serving our country at any greater risk than they're already at.
A May 4, 2011, YouTube clip (archived here) from "60 Minutes" on CBS News shows Obama commenting on his decision to not release the photos (embedded below).
Other fact checks
This claim was also investigated by The New York Times on May 4, 2011, and Snopes on May 5, 2011.
