Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Jackpot: U.S. finds huge amount of data on Bin Laden’s computers (What's on that hard drive?)
Hotair ^ | 05/03/2011 | Allahpundit

Posted on 05/03/2011 7:16:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Would you care for some whipped cream and sprinkles on your sundae?

The assault force of Navy SEALs snatched a trove of computer drives and disks during their weekend raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, yielding what a U.S. official called “the mother lode of intelligence.”

The special operations forces grabbed personal computers, thumb drives and electronic equipment during the lightning raid that killed bin Laden, officials told POLITICO…

Hundreds of people are going through it now,” an official said, adding that intelligence operatives back in Washington are very excited to find out what they have.

“It’s going to be great even if only 10 percent of it is actionable,” the official said.

Follow the link for tantalizing details about how the SEALs encountered Bin Laden in the compound and their reaction when they were told what the mission was. Who’s next on the hit list once we’re done analyzing the data? You guessed it:

Does bin Laden’s demise mean the death of al-Qaeda? CIA analysts won’t go that far. But they have concluded that the operation “will accelerate its demise,” and that the battered organization is now at a “tipping point” that could lead to collapse.

The hidden trophy of Sunday’s raid: The JSOC team captured intelligence materials from the compound that might reveal the location of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the organization’s new commander. “That’s where we’re going next,” says one U.S. official involved in planning the operation.

So at last, after fully a decade of wondering, we’ll have an answer to the question I asked in this post: Did Bin Laden have an actual job with Al Qaeda anymore or was he basically just being cc’d on messages and offering “spiritual encouragement”? Stories have popped up on the wires from time to time alleging that he’s still giving battlefield orders. Some that we’ve blogged were murky yet spectacular, like this one from Newsweek in 2007 alleging a power struggle between OBL and Zawahiri. More recently, in the fall of last year, U.S. officials claimed that Bin Laden had dispatched his couriers with instructions for a Mumbai-style attack in Europe or America. That report emerged in October — which we now know was after U.S. intelligence had already zeroed in on him in his Abbottabad compound. Wouldn’t surprise me if the hard drives confirm their suspicions.

According to Dianne Feinstein, he might have been living at the compound for the past six years. Six years. And somehow, supposedly, nobody knew.

Update: Was it even longer than six years? Was he there all along?

U.S. officials say detainees held at Guantanamo helped lead them to the courier.

In one early clue, according to a secret Pentagon cable made public by Wikileaks, senior Al Qaeda commander Abu al Libi told interrogators he became “the official messenger” for bin Laden and for a year in 2003 “moved his family to Abbottabad, Pakistan” — the city near Islamabad where bin Laden was killed Sunday.

Update: You know, I’m actually less interested in who Osama was talking to within Al Qaeda than who he was talking to within Pakistani intelligence. Let the probe begin:

Obama administration officials said Monday they would probe whether Pakistani authorities helped al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden stay in hiding for years, one day after he was killed by U.S. special forces at an outsize mansion complex located in the same city as Pakistan’s top military academy…

He didn’t specify which agencies of Pakistan’s government would be investigated. But privately, administration officials said the U.S. would have to probe for the possible involvement of Pakistan’s spy service and the military. “There are only so many agencies in the government that might have been involved,” said an official…

[An] ISI official acknowledged that Pakistanis are embarrassed by the raid. “It’s unfortunate, but we did not know about the people resident in that compound,” said the official. “That is a negative fallout that we have to live with.”




TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: computer; jackpot; osamabinladen
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-73 next last
To: Sicvee

he has sat dish.


21 posted on 05/03/2011 7:33:27 AM PDT by Perdogg (0bama got 0sama?? Really, was 0sama on the golf course?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Oshkalaboomboom
When it comes to doing really neat things to people, you STFU. That way the joy keeps coming.

Personally I think Bin Laden thought Obama was his friend(in relative terms). I think OBL thought he was safe from any covert action. That is exactly why he was living where he was.

22 posted on 05/03/2011 7:34:28 AM PDT by blackdog (The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

HEY! What’s he doing with a picture of my wife naked?!!!


23 posted on 05/03/2011 7:35:21 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy

Someone needs to do a Certificate of Live Death for Osama.


24 posted on 05/03/2011 7:36:46 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Oshkalaboomboom
The hidden trophy of Sunday’s raid: The JSOC team captured intelligence materials from the compound that might reveal the location of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the organization’s new commander. “That’s where we’re going next,” says one U.S. official involved in planning the operation.

Uh...whatever for?
25 posted on 05/03/2011 7:37:05 AM PDT by Blogger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Anti-Bubba182

Porn?

One can only hope that he has acres and acres of porn on that drive. Can only serve to demoralize his followers and further debase his image in the Islamic world.


26 posted on 05/03/2011 7:37:19 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Perdogg; Impy; fieldmarshaldj

More like underage goats and sheep.


27 posted on 05/03/2011 7:37:41 AM PDT by GOPsterinMA (Some men DO just want to watch the world burn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Oshkalaboomboom

To watch the cockroaches scatter. Hope all satellites are trained on the ME. I expect them to go to ground until they think it’s safe to resume their death and destruction. I bet Zawahiri and the guy in Yemen are thinking about how soon a helicopter will pay them a visit.


28 posted on 05/03/2011 7:38:07 AM PDT by Marty62 (Marty60)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: wilco200
Can you imagine the poor SOB who bought or stole a computer used by OBL or his staff? Next week he'll be watching goat milking on a webcam and twenty Seals flash-bang his bedroom, pepper spray his face, and swoop him off in a helicopter.

The next year should prove to be interesting.

29 posted on 05/03/2011 7:46:02 AM PDT by blackdog (The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Usama’s mortgage note was from Fannie Mae.


30 posted on 05/03/2011 7:46:23 AM PDT by School of Rational Thought (Get the BO out of the Executive Mansion.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The following fact is false: al Zahwahiri’s location was found in Osama’s house.

Or is it? Ayman can you take the chance? Who will be that next knock on the door?


31 posted on 05/03/2011 7:48:26 AM PDT by depressed in 06 (Hope and change is share the poverty.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog

“One can only hope that he has acres and acres of porn on that drive. Can only serve to demoralize his followers and further debase his image in the Islamic world.”

The politically correct U.S. administration and lap dog media would never let us know that - The operatives at the terrorist front group C.A.I.R. have brainwashed too many Americans into washing their mouths out with soap rather than ever reporting anything that might put Islam and its followers in anything but a priestly light.


32 posted on 05/03/2011 7:51:28 AM PDT by Seeing More Clearly Now (http://www.uhuh.com/nwo/communism/comgoals.htm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Perdogg

Please, please tell me that Democratic Underground was his home page.


33 posted on 05/03/2011 8:03:34 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("If you touch my junk, I'm gonna have you arrested.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog

“One can only hope that he has acres and acres of porn on that drive. Can only serve to demoralize his followers and further debase his image in the Islamic world.”

The politically correct U.S. administration and lap dog media would never let us know that - The operatives at the terrorist front group C.A.I.R. have brainwashed too many Americans into washing their mouths out with soap rather than ever reporting anything that might put Islam and its followers in anything but a priestly light.


34 posted on 05/03/2011 8:06:06 AM PDT by Seeing More Clearly Now (http://www.uhuh.com/nwo/communism/comgoals.htm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: AntiKev
He was living near the Pakistani Military Academy, in a huge compound, near a bunch of retired Pakistani officers. I think it’s safe to say that at some (high!) level, they knew he was there.

This raises a question as to whether US taxpayer's dollars sent to Pakistan as military aid was used to build the compound in 2005?

35 posted on 05/03/2011 8:15:45 AM PDT by varon (Allegiance to the Constitution, always. Allegiance to a party, never!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Money path?


36 posted on 05/03/2011 8:15:45 AM PDT by Vaduz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oshkalaboomboom
If they did get a treasure trove of intelligence why would they tip everyone off by publicizing it?

Because Zawahiri and Co. would be idiots to imagine the SEALS didn't get Bin Ladin’s files. So why not say so? And twitchy vermin become worried that their present hidey-holes aren't so safe and start trying to find safer ones. And when they're in transit they can easily make a mistake that gets them caught.
37 posted on 05/03/2011 8:20:28 AM PDT by Cheburashka (Democratic Underground: The Hogwarts of stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
JSOC team captured intelligence materials from the compound that might reveal the location of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the organization’s new commander.

The cave al-Zawahiri's holed-up in in Afghanistan. These Al-Queerda commanders certainly do lead by example.


38 posted on 05/03/2011 8:21:44 AM PDT by VeniVidiVici (The last Democrat worth a damn was Stalin. He purged his whole Party.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Dates and methods of the next attacks on the U. S.????

Other countries?


39 posted on 05/03/2011 8:26:36 AM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: varon

That’s a good point that I never considered. This really leaves more questions than answers.


40 posted on 05/03/2011 8:28:20 AM PDT by AntiKev ("Within the strangest people, truth can find the strangest home." - Great Big Sea - Company of Fools)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-73 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson