U.S. releases Osama bin Laden tapes

China.org.cn, May 8, 2011

Osama bin Laden, in a video recovered from his compound and released by the Pentagon. [Agencies]

The U.S. Defense Department on Saturday has released several videos of bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan.

The five U.S. government-selected 'home videos' offer the first public glimpse at bin Laden's life behind the walls of his compound in suburban Pakistan.

One of the videos shows that Osama bin Laden watches television coverage of himself.

A video footage also shows Bin Laden in a gold robe speaking to the camera in propaganda video outtakes.

The government-selected clips provide an opportunity for the U.S. to paint bin Laden in an unflattering light to his supporters.

The videos include outtakes of his propaganda films and, taken together, portray him as someone obsessed with his own image and how he is portrayed to the world.

The information suggests bin Laden played a strong role in planning and directing attacks by al-Qaida and its affiliates in Yemen and Somalia, two senior officials said.

One of bin Laden's widows told Pakistani investigators that the world's most wanted man stayed in a village for nearly two and a half years before moving to the nearby garrison town of Abbottabad, where he was killed.

These astonishing home videos, seized by Navy SEALs after Bin Laden was killed on Monday and released on Saturday. Experts were still analyzing materials seized in the raid.