Oh, cry me a motherf**king RIVER: bin Laden's Abbottabad "sanctuary and prison"

CALVIN WOODWARD 05/14/11 10:46 AM ET AP

WASHINGTON — Surrounded by the din of his multiple families within walls that were both his sanctuary and prison, Osama bin Laden pecked endlessly at a computer, issuing directives to his scattered and troubled terrorist empire. It's not clear who really listened.

The latest intelligence from the wealth of material found at bin Laden's last hideout paints a complicated picture of the fugitive, both deeply engaged in his life's violent mission and somewhat out to pasture.

Inside the Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound, he kept busy scheming plots, rehearsed and recorded propaganda and dispatched couriers to distant Internet cafes to conduct his email traffic, using computer flash drives to relay messages he would write and store from his shabby office. He dyed his gray beard black to keep up appearances for the videos.

A discovered video shows him channel surfing with a tiny TV while wrapped in a wool blanket, wearing a knit cap and looking anything but content. Toward its own propaganda ends, the U.S. released selective excerpts of these odd home movies, choosing clips that only show the Prince of jihad in an unflattering, even pathetic, light.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/14/bin-laden-in-pakistan-pot_n_861970.html