Photographs acquired by Reuters and taken about an hour after the U.S. assault on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan show three dead men lying in pools of blood, but no weapons.
The photos, taken by a Pakistani security official who entered the compound after the early morning raid on Monday, show two men dressed in traditional Pakistani garb and one in a t-shirt, with blood streaming from their ears, noses and mouths.
The official, who wished to remain anonymous, sold the pictures to Reuters.
None of the men looked like bin Laden. U.S. President Barack Obama decided not to release photos of his body because it could have incited violence and used as an al-Qaida propaganda tool, the White House said on Wednesday.
Based on the time-stamps on the pictures, the earliest one was dated May 2, 2:30 a.m., approximately an hour after the completion of the raid in which bin Laden was killed.
Other photos, taken hours later at between 5:21 a.m. and 6:43 a.m. show the outside of the trash-strewn compound and the wreckage of the helicopter the United States abandoned. The tail assembly is unusual, and could indicate some kind of previously unknown stealth capability.
Reuters is confident of the authenticity of the purchased images because details in the photos appear to show a wrecked helicopter from the assault, matching details from photos taken independently on Monday.
U.S. forces lost a helicopter in the raid due to a mechanical problem and later destroyed it.
The pictures are also taken in sequence and are all the same size in pixels, indicating they have not been tampered with. The time and date in the photos as recorded in the digital file’s metadata match lighting conditions for the area as well as the time and date imprinted on the image itself.
The close-cropped pictures do not show any weapons on the dead men, but the photos are taken in medium close-up and often crop out the men’s hands and arms.
One photo shows a computer cable and what looks like a child’s plastic green and orange water pistol lying under the right shoulder of one of the dead men. A large pool of blood has formed under his head.
A second shows another man with a streak of blood running from his nose across his right cheek and a large band of blood across his chest.
A third man, in a T-shirt, is on his back in a large pool of blood which appears to be from a head wound.
U.S. acknowledgment on Tuesday that bin Laden was unarmed when shot dead had raised accusations Washington had violated international law. The exact circumstances of his death remained unclear and could yet fuel controversy, especially in the Muslim world.
Pakistan faced national embarrassment, a leading Islamabad newspaper said, in explaining how the world’s most-wanted man was able to live for years in the military garrison town of Abbottabad, just north of the capital.
Pakistan blamed worldwide intelligence lapses for a failure to detect bin Laden, while Washington worked to establish whether its ally had sheltered the al-Qaida leader, which Islamabad vehemently denies. by Jon Boyle
The grounds of the compound are seen after U.S. Navy SEAL commandos killed al Qaeda …
Arabic news network Al-Arabiya quoted 'senior Pakistani security officials' who said the 12-year-old saw her father executed and his body dragged to a helicopter.
A Pakistani official rejected U.S. accounts of a bloody firefight, saying: 'Not a single bullet was fired from the compound at the U.S. forces and their choppers. Their chopper developed some technical fault and crashed and the wreckage was left on the spot.' 
Changing stories: The White House has confirmed Osama bin Laden, right, was not armed when he was killed and that his wife Amal Al-Sadah, left, was not used as a human shield
Pakistani police officers standing guard outside Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad today
The channel also said the surviving Bin Laden relatives, including six children and one of his wives, had been taken to hospital in Rawalpindi.
A slew of fresh details have emerged in the last 24 hours, which indicate Bin Laden had a plan to escape alive if he ever came under attack.
Claims include a report that Bin Laden had money and two phone numbers sewn into his clothes at the time of his death.
According to Politico, the terror chief had £450 worth of cash hidden on his person suggesting that he was prepared to have to flee quickly if his lair came under attack.
CIA director Leon Panetta is also said to have briefed that bin Laden was not more strongly guarded because he believed his network was strong enough that he would get a heads-up about any raid.
A senior US official told Fox News the compound was 'built for deception' with barricades and a false wall set up to confuse intruders.
It was built in readiness for an assault, the official claimed, with barricades on each floor and the main door apparently blocked off by a brick wall.
In a particularly salacious account, the National Enquirer claimed that the Al Qaeda leader had begged for his life and said 'it's not me' when he was confronted by the hit team.
It has also emerged that Amal Al-Sadah, the terror chief's 27-year-old wife and youngest bride, was shot in the leg during the raid but survived.
In initial accounts of the firefight, US. officials had claimed bin Laden was armed with an AK47 rifle and was using his wife as a ‘human shield’ when he was shot.
U.S. press secretary Jay Carney confirmed more details of the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden last night
Counter-terrorism official John Brennan had said. 'There was family at that compound, and there was a female who was, in fact, in the line of fire that reportedly was used as a shield to shield Bin Laden from the incoming fire.'
But last night, the White House said Bin Laden was not armed when a U.S. Navy SEAL confronted and killed him during Sunday night's assault on his compound.
The discrepancy between the two versions of events was put down to the 'fog of combat' by the White House.
Security officials said they did not recover any arms and explosives during their detailed search of the compound and the 13-roomed house, during which they removed two buffalos, a cow and around 150 chickens.
Over two days, the White House has offered several contradictory versions of events, including misidentifying which of Bin Laden's sons was killed and wrongly saying his wife died in gunfire.
Explaining the ‘mix-up’, a U.S. official said another woman had been killed.
She is believed to be the wife of Bin Laden’s courier, Sheikh Abu Ahmed, who was also killed in the raid.
White House press secretary Jay Carney acknowledged that Bin Laden did not have a weapon even though administration officials have said that the terror leader resisted during the raid.
Mr Carney said resistance does not require a firearm. He also confirmed Bin Laden was shot in the head and in the chest.
He added: ‘Bin Laden’s wife rushed the U.S. assaulter and was shot in the leg but not killed. Bin Laden was then shot and killed. He was not armed.
'The U.S. personnel on the ground handled themselves with the utmost professionalism. He was killed in an operation because of the resistance that they met.’
Police at a checkpoint on a road leading to the complex, which was built around five years ago
Security officials said they removed two buffalos, a cow and around 150 chickens from the 13-room compound in Abbottabad
In explanation of the discrepancies, Mr Carney said that officials had been trying to get information out as quickly as possible about the complex event witnessed by just a handful of people, and the storyline was being corrected.
'We provided a great deal of information with great haste in order to inform you. And obviously some of the information was, came in piece by piece and is being reviewed and updated and elaborated on.'
The conflicting accounts risk fuelling a possible backlash against the killing, with fears of reprisal terrorist attacks around the world.
An Islamist party staged a protest earlier this week, with crowds chanting: 'Down with America! Down with Obama!' and 'Jihad, Jihad the only treatment for America'.
The Pakistani Taliban, an Al Qaeda-allied group behind scores of bloody attacks in Pakistan and the failed bombing in New York's Times Square, has vowed to take revenge.
'Let me make it very clear that we will avenge the martyrdom of Osama Bin Laden, and we will do it by carrying out attacks in Pakistan and America. We will teach them an exemplary lesson,' Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan said.
Meanwhile, the White House said Bin Laden's death would not affect plans to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan this summer.
An official with Pakistan's ISI told the BBC 17 or 18 people were inside the compound at the time of the attack.
One of those in the building was a daughter of Bin Laden's who saw her father fatally shot by U.S. forces, the official claimed.
Miss Al-Sadah was just 17 when she and Bin Laden wed in Afghanistan. She was born in Yemen and the marriage was reportedly arranged to strengthen the terrorist’s links with the Gulf state.
When her father gave her away he said he was ‘proud’ to do so. Bin Laden had sent her home to Yemen for her own safety but somehow she returned despite being under surveillance.
She has already told Pakistani investigators they had been living in the compound since 2005, according to Time magazine.
The wife is now said to be at the centre of a diplomatic custody battle because the US wants to interrogate her but has been rejected by Pakistan.
US Navy seals had planned to take her with them after the raid but had no room when one of their helicopters went down during the assault. 
Outraged Pakistani protesters burn a U.S. flag during a rally in Multan to condemn the killing of Bin Laden
The dead body of the terror mastermind’s son Khalid is understood to have been flown out with the Americans, and it is not clear what has happened to it.
Pentagon sources confirmed the Navy Seals had planned to take Bin Laden’s family with them as they left, but were forced to abandon the plan when one of the helicopters crash-landed.
It had apparently clipped a tail rotor on the wall of the compound and the pilot was forced to set down. No one was injured.
Recovery: The remains of a U.S. helicopter are taken away from the Bin Laden compound
Target: Barbed wire surrounds the high walls of the compound in Abbottabad. A Pakistani official today rejected U.S. accounts of a firefight
The compound is in a lush part of Pakistan and little resembles the hillside hideaway where popular myth claimed Bin Laden was hiding out
On Monday, thanks to sophisticated satellite monitoring, U.S. forces knew they would be most likely to find Bin Laden on the second or third floors.
They were apparently helped in identifying their target when Miss Al-Sadah unwittingly screamed out his name in the melee. White House officials insist the Navy Seals were given orders to capture Bin Laden if he offered no resistance.
The commandos had been schooled in Arabic phrases which were to be shouted out in an attempt to get the terror leader to surrender.
But officials admitted they never expected him to do so, and it was unclear whether he was really been given the chance.
Confusion about the identities of those killed in the raid came despite the attack being viewed live by U.S. President Barack Obama and other senior officials.
Secret photos of the dead bin Laden seen by U.S. officials show a precision kill shot above his left eye, according to new claims.
They came as a British bishop described bin Laden's death as an 'act of vengeance' and warned or reprisals.
Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, the Bishop of Winchester, said: 'The more I consider it the more concerning I find it. The thing that troubles me most is the way some are speaking of justice being done.
'What has actually happened, only too sadly understandably, is, I think, much more reasonably viewed as an act of vengence or revenge.
'It's a failure of the whole world order that nobody in a position of responsibility trusts that we have systems of justice to cope with such a vast set of crimes as this man is responsible for.'
He added: 'It is too early to know whether the man resisted, whether he could have been captured and possibly brought to trial.
'The reality is we are behaving much more in the sense of revenge than seeking the kind of dealings that could reasonably be described as justice.'
Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone also attacked the killing, claiming it made Mr Obama look like a 'mobster'.
Mr Livingstone told the Evening Standard: 'We should have captured him and put him on trial. It's a simple point - are we gangsters ora Western democracy based on the rule of law?'
According to the U.S. account, the assault team on the compound in Abbottabad came away with hard drives, DVDs, documents and more that might tip U.S. intelligence to Al Qaeda's operational details and perhaps lead the manhunt to the presumed next-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri.
'We're moving with great dispatch to mine that' material for insights into terrorist plots that may be in the works and for clues as to the location of senior Al Qaeda officials, said John Brennan today.
Mr Brennan also asked the question that was reverberating around the world: 'How did Osama Bin Laden stay at that compound for six years or so and be undetected?'
He went on: 'We have many, many questions about this. And I know Pakistani officials do as well.'
Mr Brennan said Pakistani officials were trying to determine 'whether there were individuals within the Pakistani government or military intelligence services who were knowledgeable'.
One US source said a 'mother lode of intelligence' had been taken from Bin Laden’s compound including computer files, CD-roms and other electronic information. It is being examined by U.S. intelligence experts at a secret location in Afghanistan.
'They cleaned it out,' said one official. 'Can you imagine what’s on Osama Bin Laden’s hard drive? Hundreds of people are going through it now. It’s going to be great even if only 10 per cent of it is actionable.'
Giving further details, Mr Brennan said the aim now was to use the information from the raid to thwart possible ongoing terrorist plots. He added: 'He seemed to be very active inside the compound. We know that he was in contact with some senior Al Qaeda officials.
'So what we’re trying to do now is to understand what he has been involved in over the past several years, exploit whatever information we were able to get at the compound and take that information and continue our efforts to destroy Al Qaeda.
Watching events unfold: President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama Bin Laden
The photos, taken by a Pakistani security official who entered the compound after the early morning raid on Monday, show two men dressed in traditional Pakistani garb and one in a t-shirt, with blood streaming from their ears, noses and mouths.
The official, who wished to remain anonymous, sold the pictures to Reuters.
None of the men looked like bin Laden. U.S. President Barack Obama decided not to release photos of his body because it could have incited violence and used as an al-Qaida propaganda tool, the White House said on Wednesday.
Based on the time-stamps on the pictures, the earliest one was dated May 2, 2:30 a.m., approximately an hour after the completion of the raid in which bin Laden was killed.
Other photos, taken hours later at between 5:21 a.m. and 6:43 a.m. show the outside of the trash-strewn compound and the wreckage of the helicopter the United States abandoned. The tail assembly is unusual, and could indicate some kind of previously unknown stealth capability.
Reuters is confident of the authenticity of the purchased images because details in the photos appear to show a wrecked helicopter from the assault, matching details from photos taken independently on Monday.
U.S. forces lost a helicopter in the raid due to a mechanical problem and later destroyed it.
The pictures are also taken in sequence and are all the same size in pixels, indicating they have not been tampered with. The time and date in the photos as recorded in the digital file’s metadata match lighting conditions for the area as well as the time and date imprinted on the image itself.
The close-cropped pictures do not show any weapons on the dead men, but the photos are taken in medium close-up and often crop out the men’s hands and arms.
One photo shows a computer cable and what looks like a child’s plastic green and orange water pistol lying under the right shoulder of one of the dead men. A large pool of blood has formed under his head.
A second shows another man with a streak of blood running from his nose across his right cheek and a large band of blood across his chest.
A third man, in a T-shirt, is on his back in a large pool of blood which appears to be from a head wound.
U.S. acknowledgment on Tuesday that bin Laden was unarmed when shot dead had raised accusations Washington had violated international law. The exact circumstances of his death remained unclear and could yet fuel controversy, especially in the Muslim world.
Pakistan faced national embarrassment, a leading Islamabad newspaper said, in explaining how the world’s most-wanted man was able to live for years in the military garrison town of Abbottabad, just north of the capital.
Pakistan blamed worldwide intelligence lapses for a failure to detect bin Laden, while Washington worked to establish whether its ally had sheltered the al-Qaida leader, which Islamabad vehemently denies. by Jon Boyle
The grounds of the compound are seen after U.S. Navy SEAL commandos killed al Qaeda …
- Bin Laden had £450 sewn into his clothes, ready to flee
- Wife confronted U.S. forces and was shot but not killed
- She was NOT the human shield who tried to protect him
- US and Pakistan in 'custody battle' over wife
- British bishop: 'This isn't justice, it's revenge'
- Ken Livingstone: Killing makes Obama look like a 'mobster'
- Flags burned at pro-bin Laden protests in Quetta, Pakistan
Arabic news network Al-Arabiya quoted 'senior Pakistani security officials' who said the 12-year-old saw her father executed and his body dragged to a helicopter.
A Pakistani official rejected U.S. accounts of a bloody firefight, saying: 'Not a single bullet was fired from the compound at the U.S. forces and their choppers. Their chopper developed some technical fault and crashed and the wreckage was left on the spot.'
Changing stories: The White House has confirmed Osama bin Laden, right, was not armed when he was killed and that his wife Amal Al-Sadah, left, was not used as a human shield
Pakistani police officers standing guard outside Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad today
A slew of fresh details have emerged in the last 24 hours, which indicate Bin Laden had a plan to escape alive if he ever came under attack.
Claims include a report that Bin Laden had money and two phone numbers sewn into his clothes at the time of his death.
According to Politico, the terror chief had £450 worth of cash hidden on his person suggesting that he was prepared to have to flee quickly if his lair came under attack.
CIA director Leon Panetta is also said to have briefed that bin Laden was not more strongly guarded because he believed his network was strong enough that he would get a heads-up about any raid.
A senior US official told Fox News the compound was 'built for deception' with barricades and a false wall set up to confuse intruders.
It was built in readiness for an assault, the official claimed, with barricades on each floor and the main door apparently blocked off by a brick wall.
In a particularly salacious account, the National Enquirer claimed that the Al Qaeda leader had begged for his life and said 'it's not me' when he was confronted by the hit team.
It has also emerged that Amal Al-Sadah, the terror chief's 27-year-old wife and youngest bride, was shot in the leg during the raid but survived.
In initial accounts of the firefight, US. officials had claimed bin Laden was armed with an AK47 rifle and was using his wife as a ‘human shield’ when he was shot.
U.S. press secretary Jay Carney confirmed more details of the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden last night
Counter-terrorism official John Brennan had said. 'There was family at that compound, and there was a female who was, in fact, in the line of fire that reportedly was used as a shield to shield Bin Laden from the incoming fire.'
But last night, the White House said Bin Laden was not armed when a U.S. Navy SEAL confronted and killed him during Sunday night's assault on his compound.
The discrepancy between the two versions of events was put down to the 'fog of combat' by the White House.
Security officials said they did not recover any arms and explosives during their detailed search of the compound and the 13-roomed house, during which they removed two buffalos, a cow and around 150 chickens.
Over two days, the White House has offered several contradictory versions of events, including misidentifying which of Bin Laden's sons was killed and wrongly saying his wife died in gunfire.
Explaining the ‘mix-up’, a U.S. official said another woman had been killed.
She is believed to be the wife of Bin Laden’s courier, Sheikh Abu Ahmed, who was also killed in the raid.
White House press secretary Jay Carney acknowledged that Bin Laden did not have a weapon even though administration officials have said that the terror leader resisted during the raid.
Mr Carney said resistance does not require a firearm. He also confirmed Bin Laden was shot in the head and in the chest.
He added: ‘Bin Laden’s wife rushed the U.S. assaulter and was shot in the leg but not killed. Bin Laden was then shot and killed. He was not armed.
'The U.S. personnel on the ground handled themselves with the utmost professionalism. He was killed in an operation because of the resistance that they met.’
Police at a checkpoint on a road leading to the complex, which was built around five years ago
Security officials said they removed two buffalos, a cow and around 150 chickens from the 13-room compound in Abbottabad
In explanation of the discrepancies, Mr Carney said that officials had been trying to get information out as quickly as possible about the complex event witnessed by just a handful of people, and the storyline was being corrected.
'We provided a great deal of information with great haste in order to inform you. And obviously some of the information was, came in piece by piece and is being reviewed and updated and elaborated on.'
The conflicting accounts risk fuelling a possible backlash against the killing, with fears of reprisal terrorist attacks around the world.
An Islamist party staged a protest earlier this week, with crowds chanting: 'Down with America! Down with Obama!' and 'Jihad, Jihad the only treatment for America'.
The Pakistani Taliban, an Al Qaeda-allied group behind scores of bloody attacks in Pakistan and the failed bombing in New York's Times Square, has vowed to take revenge.
'Let me make it very clear that we will avenge the martyrdom of Osama Bin Laden, and we will do it by carrying out attacks in Pakistan and America. We will teach them an exemplary lesson,' Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan said.
Meanwhile, the White House said Bin Laden's death would not affect plans to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan this summer.
An official with Pakistan's ISI told the BBC 17 or 18 people were inside the compound at the time of the attack.
One of those in the building was a daughter of Bin Laden's who saw her father fatally shot by U.S. forces, the official claimed.
Miss Al-Sadah was just 17 when she and Bin Laden wed in Afghanistan. She was born in Yemen and the marriage was reportedly arranged to strengthen the terrorist’s links with the Gulf state.
When her father gave her away he said he was ‘proud’ to do so. Bin Laden had sent her home to Yemen for her own safety but somehow she returned despite being under surveillance.
She has already told Pakistani investigators they had been living in the compound since 2005, according to Time magazine.
The wife is now said to be at the centre of a diplomatic custody battle because the US wants to interrogate her but has been rejected by Pakistan.
US Navy seals had planned to take her with them after the raid but had no room when one of their helicopters went down during the assault.
Outraged Pakistani protesters burn a U.S. flag during a rally in Multan to condemn the killing of Bin Laden
The dead body of the terror mastermind’s son Khalid is understood to have been flown out with the Americans, and it is not clear what has happened to it.
Pentagon sources confirmed the Navy Seals had planned to take Bin Laden’s family with them as they left, but were forced to abandon the plan when one of the helicopters crash-landed.
It had apparently clipped a tail rotor on the wall of the compound and the pilot was forced to set down. No one was injured.
Recovery: The remains of a U.S. helicopter are taken away from the Bin Laden compound
Target: Barbed wire surrounds the high walls of the compound in Abbottabad. A Pakistani official today rejected U.S. accounts of a firefight
The compound is in a lush part of Pakistan and little resembles the hillside hideaway where popular myth claimed Bin Laden was hiding out
They were apparently helped in identifying their target when Miss Al-Sadah unwittingly screamed out his name in the melee. White House officials insist the Navy Seals were given orders to capture Bin Laden if he offered no resistance.
THE 'FOG OF COMBAT': How White House changed its story
There have been a number of discrepancies issued by the White House since Sunday's raid.
Press Secretary Jay Carney blamed the below differing stories on the 'fog of combat.'
THEN: Osama Bin Laden was armed with an AK-47 during the raid.
NOW: The Al Qaeda leader was actually unarmed but did resist before he was shot.
THEN: On Monday, the White House said Bin Laden was involved in a firefight, which is why the SEALs killed rather than captured him.
NOW: On Tuesday, however, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Bin Laden did not fire on the SEALs.
THEN: Counter-terrorism chief, John Brennan said a woman, thought to be one of bin Laden’s wives, was used as a human shield during the raid and was killed.
NOW: Amal Al-Sadah, 27, bin Laden’s youngest wife, is thought to have rushed at the Navy SEALS and was shot in the leg but not killed. The woman who died was said to be the wife of one of his aides, caught in the cross fire.
THEN: A White House transcript said it was bin Laden’s son Hamza who was killed in the raid.
NOW: They then corrected that to another son Khalid.
THEN: The night of the raid, administration officials held a telephone briefing for reporters. 'During the raid, we lost one helicopter due to mechanical failure,' one of the administration officials said.
NOW: Later in the same call, another official contradicted that: 'We didn't say it was mechanical.'
Press Secretary Jay Carney blamed the below differing stories on the 'fog of combat.'
THEN: Osama Bin Laden was armed with an AK-47 during the raid.
NOW: The Al Qaeda leader was actually unarmed but did resist before he was shot.
THEN: On Monday, the White House said Bin Laden was involved in a firefight, which is why the SEALs killed rather than captured him.
NOW: On Tuesday, however, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Bin Laden did not fire on the SEALs.
THEN: Counter-terrorism chief, John Brennan said a woman, thought to be one of bin Laden’s wives, was used as a human shield during the raid and was killed.
NOW: Amal Al-Sadah, 27, bin Laden’s youngest wife, is thought to have rushed at the Navy SEALS and was shot in the leg but not killed. The woman who died was said to be the wife of one of his aides, caught in the cross fire.
THEN: A White House transcript said it was bin Laden’s son Hamza who was killed in the raid.
NOW: They then corrected that to another son Khalid.
THEN: The night of the raid, administration officials held a telephone briefing for reporters. 'During the raid, we lost one helicopter due to mechanical failure,' one of the administration officials said.
NOW: Later in the same call, another official contradicted that: 'We didn't say it was mechanical.'
But officials admitted they never expected him to do so, and it was unclear whether he was really been given the chance.
Confusion about the identities of those killed in the raid came despite the attack being viewed live by U.S. President Barack Obama and other senior officials.
Secret photos of the dead bin Laden seen by U.S. officials show a precision kill shot above his left eye, according to new claims.
They came as a British bishop described bin Laden's death as an 'act of vengeance' and warned or reprisals.
Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, the Bishop of Winchester, said: 'The more I consider it the more concerning I find it. The thing that troubles me most is the way some are speaking of justice being done.
'What has actually happened, only too sadly understandably, is, I think, much more reasonably viewed as an act of vengence or revenge.
'It's a failure of the whole world order that nobody in a position of responsibility trusts that we have systems of justice to cope with such a vast set of crimes as this man is responsible for.'
He added: 'It is too early to know whether the man resisted, whether he could have been captured and possibly brought to trial.
'The reality is we are behaving much more in the sense of revenge than seeking the kind of dealings that could reasonably be described as justice.'
Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone also attacked the killing, claiming it made Mr Obama look like a 'mobster'.
Mr Livingstone told the Evening Standard: 'We should have captured him and put him on trial. It's a simple point - are we gangsters ora Western democracy based on the rule of law?'
According to the U.S. account, the assault team on the compound in Abbottabad came away with hard drives, DVDs, documents and more that might tip U.S. intelligence to Al Qaeda's operational details and perhaps lead the manhunt to the presumed next-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri.
'We're moving with great dispatch to mine that' material for insights into terrorist plots that may be in the works and for clues as to the location of senior Al Qaeda officials, said John Brennan today.
Mr Brennan also asked the question that was reverberating around the world: 'How did Osama Bin Laden stay at that compound for six years or so and be undetected?'
He went on: 'We have many, many questions about this. And I know Pakistani officials do as well.'
Mr Brennan said Pakistani officials were trying to determine 'whether there were individuals within the Pakistani government or military intelligence services who were knowledgeable'.
One US source said a 'mother lode of intelligence' had been taken from Bin Laden’s compound including computer files, CD-roms and other electronic information. It is being examined by U.S. intelligence experts at a secret location in Afghanistan.
'They cleaned it out,' said one official. 'Can you imagine what’s on Osama Bin Laden’s hard drive? Hundreds of people are going through it now. It’s going to be great even if only 10 per cent of it is actionable.'
Giving further details, Mr Brennan said the aim now was to use the information from the raid to thwart possible ongoing terrorist plots. He added: 'He seemed to be very active inside the compound. We know that he was in contact with some senior Al Qaeda officials.
'So what we’re trying to do now is to understand what he has been involved in over the past several years, exploit whatever information we were able to get at the compound and take that information and continue our efforts to destroy Al Qaeda.
Watching events unfold: President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama Bin Laden
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