US officials have released videos of Osama bin Laden seized in the daring raid that killed the Al-Qaeda chief, saying the material shows he was a hands-on leader who took pains to shape his public image

US officials have released videos of Osama bin Laden seized in the daring raid that killed the Al-Qaeda chief, saying the material shows he was a hands-on leader who took pains to shape his public image.
  
The tracking of bin Laden and the May 1 raid, in which more than 20 US Navy SEALs swooped on his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and shot him dead, was an intelligence coup on a historic scale, a senior US intelligence official said.
  
The Al-Qaeda leader "was far from a figurehead, he was an active player," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters at the Pentagon on Saturday. The seized material includes digital, audio and video files, printed items, computer equipment, recording devices and handwritten documents.
  
"As a result of the raid, we have acquired the single largest collection of senior terrorist materials ever," the official said. "This is the greatest intelligence success perhaps of a generation," the official said.
  
Five videos were made public, including an extraordinary one in which the Al-Qaeda chief is seen holding a remote and sitting huddled under a blanket, watching images of himself on television in a spare-looking room.
  
In that video, bin Laden has a gray beard, but in other videos that were apparently meant for distribution as propaganda his beard appears to have been dyed black. Audio was removed from the videos to avoid any possible terror messages, US officials said.
  
One video is styled as a "message to the American people" and is believed to have been recorded in October or November. Bin Laden is groomed and is speaking from a prepared text.
  
Three others recordings appear to be propaganda message rehearsals. The official said these show missed "cues" and problems with lighting.
  
"This clearly was an Al-Qaeda leader who was very interested in his own image," the official said. He "jealously guarded his image." It remains an "open question" now who will succeed bin Laden as head of the network, the official said.
  
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian surgeon long considered Al-Qaeda's number two, "is obviously the presumed successor." However, when Al-Qaeda acknowledged its chief's death, the statement "did not announce a new leader, suggesting it is still trying to deal with bin Laden's demise," the official said. There are "strong indications he is not popular within certain circles of the group. So I believe it's an open question as to who will take over from Osama bin Laden."

The material seized from the compound "only further confirms how important it was to go after bin Laden," CIA Director Leon Panetta said in a statement. The effort that traced bin Laden to Abbottabad also showed the CIA's "perseverance, skill and sheer courage," Panetta said.
  
In Pakistan, bin Laden's Yemeni wife said the Al-Qaeda kingpin had lived for five years in the Abbottabad compound, Pakistani security officials said.

The director general of Pakistan's military-run intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or ISI, was expected to meet in Washington with Panetta in the coming days.