By ADAM ENTOUS
WASHINGTON—The U.S. government released five video clips of Osama bin Laden that were seized by Navy SEALs during the raid on his compound, providing the first photographic evidence of what officials described as the al Qaeda leader's "active command-and-control center" in Pakistan.
The videos, one of which shows bin Laden as recently as Nov. 5, were part of what a senior U.S. intelligence official called "the single-largest collection of senior terrorist materials ever" obtained by the U.S.
A preliminary review of the handwritten, digital, audio, video and print materials found in the Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound "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."
In a written statement issued after the video clips were released Saturday, Leon Panetta, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said: "The material found in the compound only further confirms how important it was to go after bin Laden."
Materials discovered so far by analysts include internal communications between al Qaeda's leadership in Pakistan and its far-flung affiliates. Al Qaeda has branches in Yemen and North Africa.
President Barack Obama has ruled out releasing photos taken of bin Laden after he was shot in the head by the SEAL team. People who have seen the post-mortem photos have described them as gruesome. The senior intelligence official said they showed bin Laden's beard was grey at the time when he was shot.
One of the videos, titled "Message to the American People," features bin Laden, his beard dyed black, condemning U.S. policy and criticizing capitalism, the senior intelligence official said. The U.S. released the videos without their soundtracks, making it impossible to confirm what bin Laden was saying.
Officials said the U.S. decided to release the five video clips to show the world that it had killed bin Laden. The decision was made to remove the audio because the U.S. didn't want to propagate bin Laden's anti-U.S. messages.
The senior intelligence official said the U.S. believes the "Message to the American People" video was produced sometime between Oct. 9 and Nov. 5, 2010. The official said it was unclear why the video wasn't distributed or posted on the Internet.
In another video clip, bin Laden appears with an untrimmed gray beard, wrapped in a blanket in a small room, sitting in front of a television set. In the clip, he is seen using a remote control to scroll between television channels and watching images of himself in previously released videos. The senior intelligence official said it was unclear when or where that video was filmed.
The other videos clips released on Saturday show what the senior intelligence official described as rehearsal sessions and "outtakes" of other bin Laden message videos that were apparently in the works.
In one case, bin Laden can be seen practicing in front of a large armoire. A preliminary analysis shows the armoire in that video clip matches one found in the Abbottabad compound, though it is unclear when it was taken. In another video clip, bin Laden appeared in front of a wrinkled blue sheet.
Another video clip shows bin Laden or his videographer missing a queue and having trouble with the overhead lighting, the senior intelligence official said.
Bin Laden was not armed in any of the newly released video clips.
The videos and other materials from bin Laden's compound have been taken to a secure facility at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., just outside Washington.
The process of reviewing all of the materials could take a month or longer because some documents are encrypted and written materials have to be translated from Arabic into English, officials said.
The around-the-clock mining operation involves dozens of specialists drawn from across the U.S. national-security agencies. In addition to the CIA, the team is drawn from the National Security Agency, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security and others.
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