News / International
US releases videos of Osama bin Laden: Official
07 May 2011 at 17:07hrs | Views
The US on Saturday made public five videos seized during the raid at the slain Osama bin Laden's mansion in Abbottabad in Pakistan which officials said was infact an active command and control centre of al-Qaeda.
The newly released videos included one showing bin Laden in which his hair and beard are white watching images of himself on television inside his one million USD three-storey building just 800 yards away from the Pakistan Military Academy in the garrison town.
Wrapped in a brown blanket and holding a remote control, bin laden was shown flipping back and forth between clips of himself. The small television was perched on top of a desk with wires running to a nearby cable or control box.
Osama bin Laden was active, in plotting terrorist strikes, issuing directives to the commanders on the ground and not just simply a strategic planner and leader of al-Qaeda, a senior US intelligence officer told reporters at a Pentaqon briefing while releasing the five rare videos recovered from the Abbottabad compound
The videos were offered as further proof that Navy SEALs killed the world's most wanted terrorist on May 1.
They gave some of the rare insight of the al Qaeda leader. In one of the videos, the 9/11 mastermind was shown filming for terrorist propaganda videos after he apparently dyed and neatly trimmed his beard.
Another video is described by bin Laden as "A message to the American people" that is believed to have been recorded in October or November last, the official said.
The official said there has been no indication so far that Pakistan government was aware of presence of bin Laden in Abbottabad compound, 80 km from Islamabad.
The US government is sharing information obtained from the materials recovered from the Abbottabad compound with other foreign countries but did not specify if India was one of them.
Describing the material obtained from the Abbottabad compound and the treasure-trove of terrorist material, the official said it will take some time for the US to scan through all the information.
The CIA has set up a task force with officials from other US government agencies in this regard.
Most of the information from these materials would however remain classified.
The newly released videos included one showing bin Laden in which his hair and beard are white watching images of himself on television inside his one million USD three-storey building just 800 yards away from the Pakistan Military Academy in the garrison town.
Wrapped in a brown blanket and holding a remote control, bin laden was shown flipping back and forth between clips of himself. The small television was perched on top of a desk with wires running to a nearby cable or control box.
Osama bin Laden was active, in plotting terrorist strikes, issuing directives to the commanders on the ground and not just simply a strategic planner and leader of al-Qaeda, a senior US intelligence officer told reporters at a Pentaqon briefing while releasing the five rare videos recovered from the Abbottabad compound
The videos were offered as further proof that Navy SEALs killed the world's most wanted terrorist on May 1.
They gave some of the rare insight of the al Qaeda leader. In one of the videos, the 9/11 mastermind was shown filming for terrorist propaganda videos after he apparently dyed and neatly trimmed his beard.
Another video is described by bin Laden as "A message to the American people" that is believed to have been recorded in October or November last, the official said.
The official said there has been no indication so far that Pakistan government was aware of presence of bin Laden in Abbottabad compound, 80 km from Islamabad.
The US government is sharing information obtained from the materials recovered from the Abbottabad compound with other foreign countries but did not specify if India was one of them.
Describing the material obtained from the Abbottabad compound and the treasure-trove of terrorist material, the official said it will take some time for the US to scan through all the information.
The CIA has set up a task force with officials from other US government agencies in this regard.
Most of the information from these materials would however remain classified.
Source - Reuters
