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Bin Laden's Hard Drives Could Yield Intelligence Trove

Bin Laden's Hard Drives Could Yield Intelligence Trove
SEALS found documents, thumbnails and DVDs in the bin Laden compound.

It took U.S. spies years to find Osama bin Laden. This week's daring raid and assassination of the Al Qaeda leader may yield years worth of intelligence treasures neatly assembled on hard drives.

When Navy SEALs left the Abbottabad compound in Pakistan with bin Laden’s body, they also took with them documents, hard drives, thumb drives and DVDs.

UCSD Professor Eli Berman hopes the potential electronic trove answers key questions about ties been Al Qaeda and Pakistani intelligence.

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“You’d want to know who the operatives are and what their relationship is with the different elements of the Pakistani government," Berman said. "What type of relationship did bin Laden have with local extremists and militants?”

Berman said if those questions are answered the intelligence may prove to be the unraveling of the Al Qaeda network.

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