osama-gets-the-silent-treatment
In life, Osama bin Laden carefully crafted his image as a pious, anti-American leader. In death, he surely wouldn't appreciate the U.S. government releasing his blooper reel.
As part of what a senior U.S. intelligence official called "the greatest intelligence success, perhaps, of a generation," the government has released five videos captured during Sunday's dramatic storming of Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. None of them [display his execution](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/no-pictures-it-did-happen-al-qaida-confirms-osama-death/). All have had the sound excised so as not to spread al-Qaida propaganda.
The official told a packed room of reporters at the Pentagon on Saturday afternoon that an alphabet soup of intelligence agencies are working "around the clock" to exploit information from [dozens of bin Laden's thumb drives, computers, recording devices and cellular phones](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/what-theyre-looking-for-inside-osamas-thumb-drives/) to unlock clues to future terrorist attacks and the whereabouts of al-Qaida's operatives. That trove is "the largest collection of senior terrorist materials, ever" the official said. Despite years of speculation that bin Laden was a mere figurehead in the organization, he was "an active player," directing "even tactical details of the group's management" from his Abbottabad hideout.
Within the trove: at least five unreleased videos of bin Laden. According to an initial U.S. intelligence assessment, it's "highly unlikely" anyone besides the terrorist leader ever saw this footage. Most display bin Laden recording propaganda videos. One shows a haggard bin Laden watching his own TV appearances. Still others seem like outtakes: "Pakistan's funniest home videos," one reporter joked. Recorded at unknown dates, they now represent some of the last media appearances the charismatic terrorist would ever make -- and for the first time, their release is out of the control of bin Laden's propagandists.
Osama Gets The Silent Treatment
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The U.S. wouldn't release the audio accompanying this or the other four videos, out of a reluctance to spread al-Qaida propaganda. But a senior U.S. intelligence official briefing reporters said that this is a clip from an unreleased bin Laden video recorded probably between October 9 and November 5, 2010. The terrorist leader "rehashes" his usual themes, the official said: attacking U.S. foreign policy and "denigrating capitalism."
The video carries the logo of al-Qaida's media arm, as-Sahab. And the intel official noted that bin Laden appears to have dyed his beard -- as the next video indicates.
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