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Bin Laden videos show hideout life

Propaganda tapes also will be released

WASHINGTON — Americans are expected to get a glimpse of Osama bin Laden’s daily life with the disclosure of home videos that show him strolling around his secret compound, along with propaganda tapes that have never been made public.

The footage shot at the terror leader’s hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and the propaganda tapes are expected to be released to the news media Saturday, U.S. officials said.

They are among the wealth of information collected during the U.S. raid that killed bin Laden and four others. 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.

And it further demonstrates to the U.S. that top al-Qaida commanders and other key insurgents are scattered throughout Pakistan, not just in the rugged border areas, and are being supported and given sanctuary by Pakistanis.

Despite protests from Pakistan, defeating al-Qaida and taking out its senior leaders in Pakistan remains a top U.S. priority. That campaign will not be swayed by Islamabad’s complaints that the raid violated the country’s sovereignty, a senior defense official said Friday.

Officials discussed sensitive material only on the condition of anonymity. Their comments underscore U.S. resolve to pursue terror leaders in Pakistan, particularly during this critical period in the Afghanistan war, as President Barack Obama moves to fulfill his promise to begin withdrawing troops this July.

Already the Afghan Taliban has warned that bin Laden’s death will boost morale of insurgents battling the U.S. and its NATO allies. Al-Qaida itself vowed revenge, confirming bin Laden’s death for the first time but saying that Americans’ “happiness will turn to sadness.”

For its part, the U.S. has already launched at least one drone strike into Pakistan in the days since bin Laden was killed, and there is no suggestion those will be curtailed.

The strikes are largely carried out by pilotless CIA drones, and the expectation is that they will continue in the coming days as U.S. military and intelligence officials try to take advantage of the data they swept up in the raid.

The raid on bin Laden’s compound deep inside the Pakistan border has further eroded already strained relations between Washington and Islamabad, and Pakistani officials have said they want the U.S. to reduce its military presence in their country. The Pakistani army, while acknowledging it failed to find bin Laden, said it would review cooperation with the U.S. if there is another similar attack.

A senior defense official said recent protests by Islamabad about the raid will not stop the U.S. from moving against terror leaders that threaten American security.

Obama has made it clear that the U.S. will take action wherever necessary to root out al-Qaida, which has declared war on the United States and has been using Pakistan as a base to plot and direct attacks from there and other insurgent locations around the world.

The official also said there are no plans to scale back U.S. training of the Pakistani frontier corps and army. But the decision is up to Pakistan.

U.S. administration leaders have been careful not to directly accuse the Pakistani government of being complicit in hiding bin Laden, but it strains credibility that he could have been hiding there in a large compound for years without someone knowing it.

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