VIDEO: Pentagon releases bin Laden tapes
May 7, 2011 11:42 pm
The Pentagon released several videos today (May 7) of Osama bin Laden found in his hideout, including one of bin Laden watching himself on the news, reports The Washington Post quoting the U.S. Government stated a short while ago.
Meanwhile The Guardian reports that video footage of Osama bin Laden shot at the terror leader’s hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, along with propaganda tapes, have been released by the Pentagon.
The home videos were among material seized following the raid by US troops last week in which Bin Laden was shot dead.
The material suggests he played a strong role in planning and directing attacks by al-Qaida and its associates in Yemen and Somalia, two senior US officials said.
It also suggests that Bin Laden was much more involved in directing the terror group’s personnel and operations over the past decade than some analysts had previously thought.
However, the US would not confirm reports that the material gave clues about the whereabouts of al-Qaida deputy Ayman al-Zawahri.
A senior defence official said that recent protests in Islamabad over the raid would not stop Washington from moving against terrorists that threaten America.
There are no plans to scale back US training of the Pakistani frontier corps and army, he added.
One of Bin Laden’s wives, Amal Ahmed Abdulfattah, has told Pakistani security officials that he may have lived in the country for more than seven years before his discovery.
She told investigators that Bin Laden had stayed in a nearby village before moving to the garrison town of Abbottabad.
“Amal told investigators that they lived in a village in Haripur district for nearly two and a half years before moving to Abbottabad at the end of 2005,” a security official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The disclosure may further anger Washington. Pakistani officials have denied sheltering Bin Laden.
