Osama Bin Laden is Dead!! US gathered 'an awful lot of information' in weekend raid, Panetta says

Thanks for the laugh about dumping the garbage in the ocean, Wrap, lol. But, yes, how appropriate that is for Bin Laden when you picture that as such.
I don't think it was only an impression on the young in middle school at the time, I really do believe that everyone has been afraid of terrorism ever since, though the young have become more complacent. I think it has preyed more heavily on the minds of older adults myself and made us all feel less secure than we once did. People as old as I am were taught to fear a very possible nuclear attack from the Soviet Union back when I was in grade school. We were drilled constantly about what to do when it happened. We were told that our particular city was #2 or 3 on the list of the probable places that would get nuked. We lived in fear then. Then came talks later on and agreements with the Russians and fear was forgotten until 2001. When things go along nicely for a few years children forget the fears, but the adults always remember them it seems.

TR, you are a master at summing up a situation or event! And, you are correct. I remember the drills we had in elementary when the Cuban Missile Crisis was going on. I was 10 and scared to death!

And, yes..we elders (ugh! hate to admit it) were brought up to fear nuclear attacks. I think in a way, it has made us wiser. We are aware that it could happen in this day and age, but we are realistic as well. In this case, "they" must know the world in general in on full alert. They would be crazy or More crazy than they are already to attempt something right now.

This year's 911 anniversary will be bittersweet. I hope that's all it is!

I so remember in elementary school, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the drills where we had to get under our desks and cover our heads. My parents stocked up on food and one closet was dedicated just for that type of stuff. One of the neighbors built a bomb shelter. I think I was just a bit too young to really understand and I don't remember being scared, how strange.

"Thousands of documents" recovered from Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan could help the U.S. "destroy al-Qaida," U.S. officials told NBC News.

NBC News reported Monday afternoon that the documents — in both paper and electronic form on computers and portable computer drives — were recovered Sunday when a U.S. commando team raided the three-story compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed bin Laden, 54, the founder of the Islamist network that killed more than 3,000 people in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday that 10 hard drives, five computers and more than 100 storage devices were recovered from the compound. The specific numbers were first reported Tuesday morning by CNN.

U.S. officials would not discuss details of what might be in the papers and on the computer drives, including whether the material was encrypted. But in an interview with NBC News' Brian Williams, CIA Director Leon Panetta said, "The reality is that we picked up an awful lot of information there at the compound."
White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday that the information was believed to break down into three categories:


"We're moving with great dispatch to make sure that we're able to mine that for whatever insights it gives us so that we can continue to destroy al-Qaida," Brennan said in an interview on MSNBC TV's "Morning Joe."

Intelligence could be biggest win from raid
If that turns out to be true, the materials could turn out to be "as important (as), if not more important than, the actual killing of bin Laden," Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington-based policy institute, said in an interview with The Toronto Star.

What is learned from the compound will likely extend beyond the documents to include human intelligence.
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:cheering: More good news

lindamarie wrote:"Thousands of documents" recovered from Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan could help the U.S. "destroy al-Qaida," U.S. officials told NBC News.

NBC News reported Monday afternoon that the documents — in both paper and electronic form on computers and portable computer drives — were recovered Sunday when a U.S. commando team raided the three-story compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed bin Laden, 54, the founder of the Islamist network that killed more than 3,000 people in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday that 10 hard drives, five computers and more than 100 storage devices were recovered from the compound. The specific numbers were first reported Tuesday morning by CNN.

U.S. officials would not discuss details of what might be in the papers and on the computer drives, including whether the material was encrypted. But in an interview with NBC News' Brian Williams, CIA Director Leon Panetta said, "The reality is that we picked up an awful lot of information there at the compound."
White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday that the information was believed to break down into three categories:


"We're moving with great dispatch to make sure that we're able to mine that for whatever insights it gives us so that we can continue to destroy al-Qaida," Brennan said in an interview on MSNBC TV's "Morning Joe."

Intelligence could be biggest win from raid
If that turns out to be true, the materials could turn out to be "as important (as), if not more important than, the actual killing of bin Laden," Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington-based policy institute, said in an interview with The Toronto Star.

What is learned from the compound will likely extend beyond the documents to include human intelligence.
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:cheering: More good news

:cheering:

I think that's great but I don't like the fact Panetta is publicizing all of this.

IMHO, this is like wearing a banner saying, we've got your number!! It only serves to piss them off more.

Leon Panetta is from NM so I am well aware of his politics after living there for about 25 years. He's great at what he does, and I am glad/relieved/ jumping for joy that we have all this information but I think it should not have been leaked to the media. MOO!

By David Alexander – Sat May 7, 5:40 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The compound in Pakistan where U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden was an active command center from which he directed al Qaeda, a senior intelligence official said on Saturday as he released videos showing bin Laden watching himself on tape and rehearsing speeches.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said information carted away from the compound by U.S. forces following Monday's raid represented the largest trove of intelligence ever obtained from a senior terrorism leader.

"This compound in Abbottabad was an active command and control center for al Qaeda's top leader and it's clear ... that he was not just a strategic thinker for the group," the official said. "He was active in operational planning and in driving tactical decisions."

The official released five video clips of bin Laden taken during the raid, most of them showing the al Qaeda leader, his beard dyed black, evidently rehearsing the videotaped speeches he occasionally distributed to his followers.

The videos were released without sound.

The intelligence official said the sound had been stripped because the United States did not want to transmit bin Laden's propaganda. He said they contained the usual message "condemning U.S. policy and denigrating capitalism."

The intelligence official's portrayal of bin Laden as an active threat to the United States followed several missteps by the Obama administration in its handling of news about the raid that killed the al Qaeda leader.

Officials initially said U.S. forces who attacked the compound engaged in a sustained firefight and bin Laden had been armed, but they later acknowledged the shooting had been limited to the first moments of the raid and bin Laden had been unarmed when killed.

The administration's changing story marred what was otherwise a major intelligence victory for Washington.

One of the videos released on Saturday was a "complete, yet unreleased" bin Laden tape he describes as "a message to the American people," the intelligence official said.

The video was believed to have been produced between October 9 and November 5, 2010, he said, adding it was unclear why it had not yet surfaced publicly.

WATCHING HIMSELF ON VIDEO
Another segment showed a gray-bearded bin Laden in a more casual setting wrapped in a blanket and apparently wearing a ski cap while watching videotapes of himself.

"The videos make clear that bin Laden remained active in al Qaeda's terrorist propaganda operations, especially in shaping his own image," the official said.
"It is improbable that this kind of footage would be anywhere but with bin Laden. He jealously guarded his image."

The official said identity of bin Laden's body had been confirmed in several different ways after the raid, including identification by a woman at the compound, facial recognition methods and matching against a DNA profile with a likelihood of error of only 1 in 11.8 quadrillion.

Al Qaeda acknowledged bin Laden's death on Friday as well, and the official said it was "noteworthy that the group did not announce a new leader, suggesting it is still trying to deal with bin Laden's demise."

The official said Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, was the presumed successor to bin Laden but "there is a strong indication that he is not popular within certain circles of the group."

"To some members of al Qaeda he's extremely controlling, is a micromanager and is not especially charismatic," the intelligence official said.

"So I believe it's an open question as to who will succeed Osama bin Laden. It is of course anathema to al Qaeda to hold free and fair elections but if free and fair elections were held, Zawahiri most likely would have a fight on his hands."

An initial review of information taken from the compound showed bin Laden continued to be interested in attacking the United States and "appeared to show continuing interest in transportation and infrastructure targets," the official said.
A multi-agency task force led by the Central Intelligence Agency was working 24 hours a day culling the intelligence cache obtained in the raid, searching for clues that might unravel threats to the United States, he said.

"It includes digital, audio and video files of varying sizes, printed materials, computer equipment, recording devices and hand-written documents," he said. It also includes personal correspondence between bin Laden and others, he said.
"The materials reviewed over the past several days clearly show that bin Laden remained an active leader in al Qaeda, providing strategic, operational and tactical instructions to the group," the official said.

"He was far from a figurehead. he was an active player."

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By KIMBERLY DOZIER, AP Intelligence Writer – 19 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Deep in hiding, his terror organization becoming battered and fragmented, Osama bin Laden kept pressing followers to find new ways to hit the U.S., officials say, citing his private journal and other documents recovered in last week's raid.

Strike smaller cities, bin Laden suggested. Target trains as well as planes. If possible, strike on significant dates, such as the Fourth of July and the upcoming 10th anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Above all, kill as many Americans as possible in a single attack.

Though he was out of the public eye and al-Qaida seemed to be weakening, bin Laden never yielded control of his worldwide organization, U.S. officials said Wednesday. His personal, handwritten journal and his massive collection of computer files reveal his hand at work in every recent major al-Qaida threat, including plots in Europe last year that had travelers and embassies on high alert, two officials said.

They described the intelligence to The Associated Press only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about what was found in bin Laden's hideout. Analysts are continuing to review the documents.

The information shatters the government's conventional thinking about bin Laden, who had been regarded for years as mostly an inspirational figurehead whose years in hiding made him too marginalized to maintain operational control of the organization he founded.

Instead, bin Laden was communicating from his walled compound in Pakistan with al-Qaida's offshoots, including the Yemen branch that has emerged as the leading threat to the United States, the documents indicate. Though there is no evidence yet that he was directly behind the attempted Christmas Day 2009 bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner or the nearly successful attack on cargo planes heading for Chicago and Philadelphia, it's now clear that they bear some of bin Laden's hallmarks.

He was well aware of U.S. counterterrorist efforts and schooled his followers in working around them, the messages to his followers show. Don't limit attacks to New York City, he said in his writings. Consider other areas such as Los Angeles or smaller cities. Spread out the targets.

In one particularly macabre bit of mathematics, bin Laden's writings show him musing over just how many Americans he must kill to force the U.S. to withdraw from the Arab world. He concludes that the smaller, scattered attacks since 9/11 had not been enough. He tells his disciples that only a body count of thousands, something on the scale of 9/11, would shift U.S. policy.

He also schemed about ways to sow political dissent in Washington and play political figures against one another, officials said.

The communications were in missives sent via plug-in computer storage devices called flash drives. The devices were ferried to bin Laden's compound by couriers, a process that is slow but exceptionally difficult to track.

Intelligence officials have not identified any new planned targets or plots in their initial analysis of the 100 or so flash drives and five computers that Navy SEALs hauled away after killing bin Laden. Last week, the FBI and Homeland Security Department warned law enforcement officials nationwide to be on alert for possible attacks against trains, though officials said there was no specific plot.

Officials have not yet seen any indication that bin Laden had the ability to coordinate timing of attacks across the various al-Qaida affiliates in Pakistan, Yemen, Algeria, Iraq and Somalia, and it is also unclear from bin Laden's documents how much the affiliate groups relied on his guidance. The Yemen group, for instance, has embraced the smaller-scale attacks that bin Laden's writings indicate he regarded as unsuccessful. The Yemen branch had already surpassed his central operation as al-Qaida's leading fundraising, propaganda and operational arm.

Al-Qaida has not named bin Laden's successor, but all indications point to his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri. The question is whether al-Zawahri, or anyone, has the ability to keep so many disparate groups under the al-Qaida banner. The groups in Somalia and Algeria, for instance, have very different goals focused on local grievances. Without bin Laden to serve as their shepherd, it's possible al-Qaida will further fragment.

British officials said the Americans had shared some information about the bin Laden cache but there had been nothing concrete yet to indicate his stamp on any of the recent terror attacks or plans in Britain — including a European plot last year involving the threat of a Mumbai-style shooting spree in a capital. Those officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

Britain's two largest terror attacks and plots — the 2005 suicide bombings and the trans-Atlantic liquid explosive plot to blow up several airliners in 2006 — both had trails that led back to Pakistan and al-Qaida figures, but there was never a direct link to bin Laden himself.

Most of the recent plots, including the stabbing of a lawmaker last year, have been traced to al-Qaida in Yemen and specifically the radical American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, British officials have said.

One British official said counterterror authorities had not been tracking bin Laden as they had other terrorists deemed more directly involved in operations — which may have been a mistake, from what they are now learning from bin Laden's own words.

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:thanks: for the articles.

By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD, Associated Press – 8 mins ago

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – Pakistani intelligence officials say a U.S. missile strike killed three people near the Afghan border.

The four missiles struck a vehicle Friday in the Doga Madakhel village of North Waziristan tribal region. North Waziristan is home to many militant groups dedicated to attacking Western troops in Afghanistan.

The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. They did not know the identities of the dead.

The strike occurred amid tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan over the May 2 American raid that killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil. The U.S. relies heavily on the covert, CIA-run missile program to kill Taliban and al-Qaida militants in Pakistan's tribal areas.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SHABQADAR, Pakistan (AP) — A pair of suicide bombers attacked recruits leaving a paramilitary training center in Pakistan on Friday, killing 80 people in the first retaliation for the killing of Osama bin Laden by American commandos last week.

The blasts in the northwest were a reminder of the savagery of al-Qaida-linked militants in Pakistan. They occurred even as the country faces international suspicion that elements within its security forces may have been harboring bin Laden, who was killed in a raid in Abbottabad, about a three hours' drive from the scene of the bombing.

"We have done this to avenge the Abbottabad incident," Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, told The Associated Press in a phone call. He warned that the group was also planning attacks on Americans living inside Pakistan.

The bombers blew themselves up in Shabqadar at the main gate of the facility for the Frontier Constabulary, a poorly equipped but front-line force in the battle against al-Qaida and allied Islamist groups like the Pakistani Taliban close to the Afghan border. Like other branches of Pakistan's security forces, it has received U.S. funding to try to sharpen its skills.

At least 80 people were killed, including 66 recruits, and around 120 people were wounded, said police officer Liaqat Ali Khan.

Around 900 young men were leaving the center after spending six months of training there. They were in high spirits and looking forward to seeing their families, for which some had brought gifts, a survivor said.

Some people were sitting inside public minivans and others were loading luggage atop the vehicles when the bombers struck, witnesses said.

"We were heading toward a van when the first blast took place and we fell on the ground and then there was another blast," said 21-year-old Rehmanullah Khan. "We enjoyed our time together, all the good and bad weather and I cannot forget the cries of my friends before they died."

The scene was littered with shards of glass mixed with blood and flesh. The explosions destroyed at least 10 vans.

It was the first major militant attack in Pakistan since bin Laden's death on May 2, and the deadliest this year.

Militants had pledged to avenge the killing and launch reprisal strikes in Pakistan.

The Taliban spokesman also suggested the attack was aimed as punishment against Pakistani authorities for failing to stop the unilateral U.S. raid that killed bin Laden, something that has sparked popular nationalist and Islamist anger.

"The Pakistani army has failed to protect its land," Ahsan said.

In its communications, the Taliban often tries to tap into popular sentiments in the country, where anti-Americanism is often stronger than feelings against Islamist militants. This is despite militant attacks over the last four years claiming the lives of many hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians.

Some 350 lawyers sympathetic with Islamists attended special prayers for bin Laden on the premises of the provincial high court in the eastern city of Lahore on Friday. The lawyers cursed the May 2 raid, chanting "Down with America."

The explosive vests used in Friday's attacks were packed with ball bearings and nails, police said.

Police official Nisar Khan said a suicide bomber in his late teens or early 20s set off one of the blasts.

"The first blast occurred in the middle of the road, and after that there was a huge blast that was more powerful than the first," said Abdul Wahid, a 25-year-old recruit whose legs were wounded in the blasts.

He said he was knocked to the ground by the force of the explosions.

"After falling, I just started crawling and dragging myself to a safer place ... along the wall of a roadside shop," he said.

The Sept. 11 mastermind and at least four others were killed by U.S. Navy SEALs who raided bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, a garrison city not far from the capital. Bin Laden is believed to have lived in the large house for up to six years.

Pakistani officials have denied knowing he was there but have criticized the American raid ordered by President Barack Obama as a violation of their country's sovereignty. To counter allegations that Pakistan had harbored bin Laden, the officials have pointed out that many thousands of Pakistani citizens, and up to 3,000 of its security forces, have died in suicide bombings and other attacks since Sept. 11, 2001, when Islamabad became an ally of the U.S. in taking on Islamist extremists.

Many of the attacks in Pakistan have targeted security forces, but government buildings, religious minorities, public places and Western targets have also been hit.

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Along with a treasure trove of intelligence both digital and hard copy, the Navy SEALs who put an end to Osama bin Laden found a treasure of another sort. The SEALs discovered an extensive stash of pornography, according to Reuters.

Sources are saying that it is not clear where in bin Laden's compound the porn was found or to whom it belonged. However, added to the revelations that bin Laden was taking an herbal aphrodisiac, one can only assume that the stash belonged to him. At the very least, bin Laden had to have known of its existence.

The whole matter is very likely to be featured often on late night TV. Taking herbs to enhance one's prowess with one's harem is one thing. Watching videos of "Fatima Does Damascus" or maybe some of the more lurid stories from the "1,001 Arabian Nights" would tend to make one think that bin Laden was not altogether serious about adhering to strict Islamic morality.

All this proves is that the West has no monopoly on sexual hypocrisy. After all, the 9/11 hijackers visited strip clubs to celebrate their last days on this Earth before they murdered thousands of people in the name of Allah. If the beef the Islamofascists have with the West is that it allows too much freedom to women and is tolerant of sexual escapades, they seem very enthusiastic about taking advantage of those freedoms and tolerance.

Saudi princes run their desert kingdom according to extreme Wahabist Islam, but then jet off to the Riviera so that they can behave in ways that would shock Caligula. Yassir Arafat was a reputed homosexual who died of AIDS in a French hospital, according to Israel Today.
It is unknown at this time whether the Obama administration will release a list of the porn that someone in the bin Laden compound, possibly the terrorist chieftain himself, enjoyed. On the one hand, the White House is trying not to "inflame the situation" by "spiking the football" (unless it benefits President Obama politically.) On the other hand, reveling in the fact that the most celebrated leader in Islam since Saladin was drooling over videos of people having sex should be something that is too good to pass up.

Most of bin Laden's adherents will openly deny that the porn collection existed, that it is all a lie from the Great Satan. But inside, doubts will form and morale will plummet even more than it already has.

Arafat died of AIDS, confirms Palestinian leader, Israel Today, July 12, 2007

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Why am I NOT surprised? I guess his "harem" wasn't enough for him?

And, the "herbal enhancer"?? I think we all know what that was! :woot: