Obama's pledged trip to Pakistan uncertain WASHINGTON --President Barack Obama's promised trip to Pakistan this year, onceseen as a reward for a key ally in the fight against terrorism, isnow a looming headache for the White House as it tries to determinewhether the government in Islamabad was complicit in allowing Osamabin Laden to live for years within the country's borders. Obamatold Pakistani officials in the fall that he planned to travel therein 2011, in part to soothe concerns that the president was favoringPakistan's neighbor and archrival, India, by visiting there first.White House spokesmen questioned this week by The Associated Pressrefused to say whether Obama still planned to go. In the hoursafter bin Laden's killing by a U.S. special forces team in Pakistan,John Brennan, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, left the topicopen. "I'm not going to address the president's schedule," he said."I think there's a commitment that the president has made that he isintending to visit Pakistan. A lot depends on availability,scheduling."
WASHINGTON - From a shabby, makeshift office, he ran a globalterrorist empire. The world's most wanted man watched newscasts ofhimself from a tiny television perched atop a rickety old deskcluttered with wires.
For years, the world only saw the 54-year-old Osama bin Laden inthe rare propaganda videos that trickled out, the ones portrayinghim as a charismatic religious figure unfazed by being the target ofa worldwide manhunt.
On Saturday, the U.S. released a handful of videos, selected toshow bin Laden in a much more candid, unflattering light. In theshort clips, bin Laden appears hunched and tired, seated on thefloor, watching television wrapped in a wool blanket and wearing aknit cap. Outtakes of his propaganda tapes show that they wereheavily scripted affairs. He dyed and trimmed his beard for thecameras, then shot and reshot his remarks until the timing andlighting were just right.
The videos were among the evidence seized by Navy SEALs after apre-dawn raid Monday that killed bin Laden in his walled Pakistanicompound. The movies, along with computer disks, thumb drives andhandwritten notes, reveal that bin Laden was still actively involvedin planning and directing al-Qaida's plots against the U.S.,according to a senior U.S. intelligence official who briefedreporters Saturday and insisted his name not be used.
"The material found in the compound only further confirms howimportant it was to go after Bin Laden," said CIA director LeonPanetta in a statement Saturday. "Since 9/11, this is what theAmerican people have expected of us. In this critical operation, wedelivered."
The notes and computer material showed that bin Laden's compoundwas a command-and-control center for al-Qaida, where the terroristmastermind stayed in contact with al-Qaida affiliates around theworld through a network of couriers, the intelligence official said.Bin Laden was eager to strike American cities again and discussedways to attack trains, officials said, though it appeared that plannever progressed beyond early discussions.
Officials said the clips shown to reporters were just part of thelargest collection of senior terrorist materials ever collected. Theevidence seized during the raid also includes phone numbers anddocuments that officials hope will help break the back of theorganization behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The videos showing "out-takes" - the miscues by bin-Laden thatwere destined for the cutting-room floor - were offered as furtherproof of bin Laden's death. President Barack Obama decided last weeknot to release photos of bin Laden's body, which were deemed toogruesome to reveal. The U.S. has said it confirmed bin Laden's deathusing DNA.
But by selecting unflattering clips of bin Laden, the U.S. alsois working to shatter the image he worked so hard to craft.
"It showed that bin Laden was not the superhero he wanted hispeople to think," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the chairman of theHouse Homeland Security Committee.
One video clearly shows the terror leader choosing and changingchannels with a remote control, which he points at what appears tobe a satellite cable box. U.S. officials have previously said therewas a satellite dish for television reception but no Internet orphone lines ran to the house. Cellphones were prohibited.
It's unclear how many tapes were pulled out of the house, andU.S. officials say they're scouring the intelligence so quickly ithas not even been catalogued and counted yet. But there may be atrove of recordings. According to the book "Growing Up bin Laden,"by his first wife and fourth son, the terrorist leader nearly alwayskept a tape recorder nearby to take down his thoughts, plans andmusings about politics and the world.
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