Osama bin Laden's hard drive being examined

This house ended up giving more than just Osama bin Laden to the U.S. military. It also gave them invaluable intelligence on al Qaeda.

/ AP Photo/Anjum Naveed

While the daring raid by a Navy SEALs team in Abbottabad, Pakistan early Monday morning may have given Americans the terrorist they so desired, it also gave intelligence personnel an invaluable trove of electronic data.

"They cleaned it out," one official told Politico. "Can you imagine what's on Osama bin Laden's hard drive?"

The assault team managed to grab personal computers, thumb drives and electronic equipment during their 40-minute operation to get bin Laden.

CBS News correspondent Pat Milton reports that the intelligence community is exploring the information obtained during the raid in an attempt to learn al Qaeda intentions and the identity and whereabouts of key al Qaeda players.

The source said a top priority continues to be the dismantlement of al Qaeda's core. U.S. officials are turning their focus to the elimination of Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's second in command, and other senior operative planners who pose a threat to western interests. The source said there is a concern however that core al Qaeda members in Pakistan may be stepping up attack plans.

"They got bin Laden but not the keys to the kingdom," the source said.

As is usual in the world of intelligence gathering, not much more is known for sure about what exactly was captured during the raid, or even where it is at the moment. Politico reports it's being examined "at a secret location in Afghanistan." Fox News claims a "volume of materials" that will be "exploited and analyzed" has already begun to arrive at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.

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The intelligence that led to bin Laden's location was largely gained, officials say, the old fashioned way - through spying and interrogation of known associates.

As President Barack Obama and countless others have said, the fight against al Qaeda goes on. This trove of electronic information, the very information that once fed bin Laden's own need-to-know desires, can only help.

[jesse2159]

The intelligence trove is almost as important as killing Bin Laden. Although there are no addresses of the other Al Quida, there will be the financial fingerprints that will tell the intelligence ageny who paid for what. Follow the money is an investigative tool as old as mankind. This is where the rubber meets the road and we'll know who our real enemies are, including the idenities of in the Pakistan intelligence community who are on their payroll. Secret bank accounts will be frozen, travel restricted and as Desi said to Lucy "You got some splaining to do"

[AOCGUY]

No doubt tons of valuable intelligence was found but by why advertise the fact to the world. Zawahri and his ilk are no doubt scattering like the cockroaches that they are (my apologies to the cockroaches of the world for that comparison).

[Red_Dragon_Hawk]

obamas ability to keep his mouth shut needs to get passed on to the leaky diapers in washington this is something that should have been kept quiet!

[excop1949]

I totally agree...better to let his cronies wonder if it was destroyed in the firefight.
This is another example of "need to know", and WE DON'T.