A week after U.S. Special Forces successfully raiding Osama bin Laden's Pakistani hideaway and killing the Al Qaeda leader, the Defense Department shared five home videos found in the compound. The videos apparently show him getting preparing (and practicing) to give one of his infamous messages to the United States. According to ABC News, one of the videos "shows bin Laden watching himself on television and holding the remote control to change the channels between what appear to be Arabic news channels" while in another Bin Laden, who "appears to have dyed his beard black, is wearing a gold shawl over a white vestment and is wearing a white skullcap."
Besides showing him as obsessed with his image, the videos and other evidence seized indicates that Bin Laden was not isolated. An official told Politico, "This compound in Abbottabad was an active command-and-control center for Al Qaeda’s leade. He was active in operational planning and in driving tactical decisions within Al Qaeda."
A senior intelligence official told NBC News, "The treasure trove of information has provided some golden nuggets of information on communications within the al-Qaida group and we hope to get a better sense if that communication continues. We are already disseminating intelligence across the U.S. government based on what we've found." Here's some video, and below are descriptions of the videos:
Via NBC News:
Video 1: A complete, unreleased message to the American people. U.S. intelligence said it was dated some time between Oct. 9 to Nov. 5, 2010. Bin Laden is shown sitting down, dressed in a gold robe, his beard is dyed black and the background is blue. There is no audio but the official said bin Laden is giving his standard message of condemning U.S. policy and capitalism.
Video 2: Bin Laden is sitting on the floor watching a television with video of his own images playing. A video of bin Laden appears on the screen. Then the camera pans over to bin Laden sitting on the floor. He has a gray beard and a black hat on, and is wrapped in a blanket. He is holding the remote control and pointing it at the television, which is sitting on a small, simple wooden table.
Video 3: A practice video. He has a dyed black beard and a wooden background, which was described as an armoire. The official said they have concluded that the armoire in the video is the same one that was found on the compound. There is no date on the video.
Video 4: Another practice clip. He has a brown background and is wearing a white shirt with a T-shirt underneath. There is no date on this video.
Video 5: Another practice video. He is in front of a wrinkled sheet, wearing a gold covering or robe and white shirt. He is wearing a white hat and his beard is dyed black. There is no date on this video.
