Al Qaeda confirms Osama bin Laden is dead Al Qaeda confirmed Osama bin Laden is dead in a statement appearing on a militant website. As Jeff Glor reports, the statement also vowed more attacks on the U.S.
Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda statement confirming OBL's death. (CBS/AP)
(CBS/AP) CAIRO - Al Qaeda on Friday confirmed the killing of Osama bin Laden and warned of retaliation, saying Americans' "happiness will turn to sadness."
The confirmation came in an Internet statement posted on militant websites, signed by "the general leadership" of al Qaeda. The announcement opens the way for the group to name a successor to bin Laden. His deputy Ayman al-Zawahri is now the most prominent figure in the group and is a very likely contender to take his place.
The statement, dated May 3, was the first by the terror network since bin Laden was killed Monday by U.S. commandos in a raid on his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The statement's authenticity could not be independently confirmed, but it was posted on websites where the group traditionally puts out its messages.
The Killing of Osama bin Laden
"The blood of the holy warrior sheik, Osama bin Laden, God bless him, is too precious to us and to all Muslims to go in vain," the statement said. "We will remain, God willing, a curse chasing the Americans and their agents, following them outside and inside their countries."
"Soon, God willing, their happiness will turn to sadness," it said, "their blood will be mingled with their tears."
There was no indication how the group will retaliate. Rather than making vehement cries of vengeance, the statement — entitled "You lived as a good man, you died as a martyr" — struck a tone of calmness and continuation. Though it included praise of bin Laden, much of the 11-paragraph statement was dedicated to underlining that al Qaeda would live on, depicting him as just another in a line of "martyrs" from the group.
"It is impossible, impossible. Sheik Osama didn't build an organization to die when he dies," the statement read. "The university of faith, Quran and jihad from which bin Laden graduated will not close its doors," it added.
"The soldiers of Islam will continue in groups and united, plotting and planning without getting bored, tired, with determination, without giving up until striking a blow," the statement.
It said bin Laden was killed "along an established path followed by the best of those who came before him and those who will come after him."
In an interview with Steve Kroft for Sunday's "60 Minutes" President Obama said he wouldn't release post-mortem images of bin Laden taken to prove his death, largely out of concern that they would fuel anti-U.S. sentiment in the Middle East.
"It is important to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence or as a propaganda tool," the president said."We don't trot out this stuff as trophies.
The president said he had discussed the issue with his intelligence team, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and that they agree with the decision.
In explaining his choice not to release the photo, Mr. Obama said that "we don't need to spike the football." He said that "given the graphic nature of these photos it would create a national security risk."
In the statement posted Friday, al Qaeda also called on Pakistanis to rise up in revolt against its leaders to "cleanse the shame." It also said that an audio message bin Laden recorded a week before his death would be issued soon.
The writers of the statement appeared unaware of the announcement by American officials that bin Laden's body had been buried at sea. The statement warned against mishandling or mistreating bin Laden's body and demanded that be handed over to his family, saying "any harm (to the body) will open more doors of evil, and there will be no one to blame but yourselves."
© 2011 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/06/501364/main20060382.shtml
More:
Pakistan arrests dozens in Abbottabad Pakistani security forces arrested dozens of people yesterday, following Sunday's U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbtotabad.
According to a report from the Open Source Center, several Pakistani agencies conducted a joint operation in Abbottabad, arresting 40 people on suspicion of links to bin Laden.
Participating were the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency, Military Intelligence, the Intelligence Bureau, and the Abbottabad Police.
Official Pakistani sources were quoted as having referred to the arrests as the "second phase" of the operation that killed the al Qaeda leader.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20060482-503543.html
Still More: (CBS News) A downed helicopter may be yielding some information about new stealth technology, as the U.S. tries to get back what remains of their Black Hawk.
One of the Black Hawks flown by an elite Army unit called Task Force 160 - which carried the Navy SEAL commandos - lost lift and was forced into a hard landing at Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan. The pilot nudged the Blackhawk forward into a controlled crash - saving the mission from disaster, but sheering off the helicopter's tail section, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.
The SEALs were able to continue with their raid. Before they left, they left blew up as much of the Blackhawk as they could but had to leave the tail section intact.
That gave aviation expert Bill Sweetman his first good look at a stealth helicopter.
"I think nobody outside the classified community really knew that these existed," he told Martin.
Special section: The killing of Osama bin Laden
New Bin Laden intel includes train attack plots
CIA spied on bin Laden from safe house
Black Hawks are manufactured by the Connecticut-based Sikorsky, but the tail section left behind in Pakistan appears modified - possibly with technology developed for a stealth helicopter program that was cancelled, reports The New York Times.
Sweetman points out some of the features that make it stealthy, like special materials covering the tail rotor hub to reduce the helicopter's radar signature.
Sweetman, Editor in Chief for Defense Technology for Aviation Week, has written that published photos of the tail section show stealth-configured shapes on the boom and tip fairings, swept stabilizers, and a silver-loaded infra-red suppression finish.
The tail rotor also has more than the usual number of blades -five or six - which evens out the distinctive whop-whop sound of a helicopter.
"At a range of a couple hundred feet even, if you've got a bit of urban background noise, you're not going to hear it," said Sweetman.
A prototype was built of the Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche helicopter (left), which was to herald a new generation of rotorcraft for the military, but the Army canceled the $8 billion program in 2004.
The Pakistanis hauled the tail section away, so now the secret of the stealth helicopter is blown.
Still, the Pentagon wants its helicopter back, and has asked Pakistan to return it.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/06/earlyshow/main20060391.shtml
More:Source: 2.7 terabytes of data recovered from bin Laden compound
Posted by Emily Rand 2 comments 1diggdigg Share E-mail Print Font
(Credit: CBS) A law enforcement source tells CBS News that 2.7 terabytes of data were recovered from the laptops, computers, hard drives and other storage devices seized from the bin Laden compound. It's unclear whether all of the 2.7 terabytes are original files or if there are multiple copies of files. To put the amount of data recovered in perspective, just one terabyte of data could hold about 2,000 hours of audio or 220 million pages of text.
Intelligence officials have not said how they are analyzing the data, but a DOD computer forensic analyst who works on computers captured on the battlefield tells CBS News forensic analysts are most likely using search indexing tools and software to rapidly analyze seized electronic devices to locate information of interest to the intelligence committee.
Sources said much of the material seized in the daring raid was encrypted so the messages could not be read if they were intercepted.
Among the material confiscated was al Qaida propaganda material including al Qaida messaging strategies to inspire and recruit new Jihadists. There is some indication that bin Laden was continuing to develop his strategy to utilize homegrown operatives that were intimately famiilar with the countries in which they lived. There was also material on current events, in an apparent effort to keep bin Laden abreast on news from around the world.
Complete coverage: The Killing of Osama bin Laden
The compound did not appear to have been used as a nerve center or a command and control post, but analysts are looking further to determine the extent of bin Laden's involvement in day to day decisions and long-term strategy.
bin Laden had cash, phone numbers sewn in clothes
The first priority, sources tell CBS News, is for analysts to determine if the mother-lode of data contains any actionable plots in the works against the U.S. and western interests. Analysts will also seek to identify any al Qaida operatives or extremists in the United States or elsewhere.
A good portion of the material is being analyzed at CIA headquarters at Langley and at other intelligence community at sites around the world.
Another top priority for analysts is to search for evidence of a connection between al Qaida and al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), in particular links between bin Laden and AQAP's leader Anwar al awlaqi, living in Yemen, and Nasir al-Wahishi, AQAP's operational leader.
Digital forensic and evidence recovery specialists were part of the raid team---springing into action after the compound was secured. The team had to rapidly preserve everything, freezing everything on computers so that it didn't get wiped out. The recovery specialists had to be particularly careful before they unplugged the computers not to trigger software programs designed to destroy hard drives or delete data that may have been installed by bin Laden's people as protection.
"The trick was to get it out fast but to preserve everything, a source said, "for intelligence purposes first but also for evidence for possible prosecutions,'' of terrorists.
Sources say it could take weeks or months to get a handle on what the U.S. has and what the value of it is.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20060493-10391695.html
And Finally: Bin Laden raid intel yields leads on al Qaeda No. 2 al Zawahiri Ayman al Zawahri headshot, chief deputy to Osama bin Laden, in an undated photo from Khost, Afghanistan.
(Credit: AP)
The intelligence community has obtained "positive intelligence" from the materials taken from Osama bin Laden's compound which is helping narrow down the locations of core al Qaeda leadership including the whereabouts of Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda's former No. 2 man and a candidate to succeed bin Laden.
The intelligence source said that there are "numerous" leads giving them locations but cautioned that they are fluid as al Qaeda leaders may be on the run, changing their locations.
"It's not as easy as going to an address. They may not be there anymore but it helps a point of reference," the source said.
Analysts are working around the clock scrutinizing the documents, knowing that the information may be perishable.
The tribal of Pakistan targeted in the strike is called the Datta Khel, where senior al Qaeda leadership suspected of operating their training camps.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20060554-10391695.html
[