Senators will have access to bin Laden photos

Updated 6:41 p.m. Eastern Time

Senators serving on the Senate Intelligence Committee and Senate Armed Services Committee will be able to see post-mortem photographs of Osama bin Laden, congressional aides confirm to CBS News' John Nolen.

Members will need to call and make an appointment to see the photos, and then go to the CIA to view them. A viewing room has been set up for that purpose.

President Obama announced last week that he would not release the gruesome post-mortem photographsto the public, telling CBS News that "[i]t is important 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 or as a propaganda tool."

Some have said they need to see the photos to confirm that bin Laden is truly dead. The White House has pointed to a video of bin Laden taken from his compound as evidence that the al Qaeda leader is gone.

Three Republican senators, including vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Saxby Chambliss, initially claimed to have seen the photos before acknowledging they were likely duped by photoshopped fakes.

UPDATE: Members of the House Intelligence Committee and House Armed Services Committee will have the same access to the images as their Senate colleagues.