U.S. officials unveil videos of bin Laden
- One video appears to be a home video of bin Laden
- Another is a message to the United States
- Officials say the DNA evidence is unquestionable -- it's bin Laden
Washington (CNN) -- Candid videos emerged of Osama bin Laden on Saturday, never-seen-before footage that provides clues into the psyche and stature of the world's most wanted terrorist.
Intelligence officials on Saturday unveiled five different videos of bin Laden that were confiscated from the raid by U.S. forces at his Pakistan compound, which left the al Qaeda leader and four others dead.
Officials say the new videos collected from the site in Abbottabad are a small slice of the haul considered to be the most significant amount of intelligence ever collected from a senior terrorist.
"The videos make clear that bin Laden remained active in al Qaeda terrorist propaganda operations, especially in shaping his own image," said a senior intelligence official granted anonymity under the ground rules of the briefing at the Pentagon.
The U.S. government edited and selected the snippets, and there is no audio to accompany the images.
The intelligence official said audio was removed from the videos because it would be "inappropriate to spread the words of terrorists and propaganda messages, especially Osama bin Laden."
But the videos, according to the official, were not altered in any other way.
"The materials reviewed over the past several days clearly show that bin Laden remained an active leader in al Qaeda, providing strategic, operational and tactical instructions to the group," the intelligence official said. "Though separated from many al Qaeda members who are located in more remote areas of the region, he was far from a figurehead. He was an active player making the recent operation even more essential for our nation's security."
The intelligence reveals that bin Laden and al Qaeda had a driving interest in taking on the United States.
One video looks like a home movie, a portrait of an old man watching television, but it is an image of a terror leader and suggests how conscious bin Laden was of his image.
Sporting a white-gray beard, bin Laden is seen sitting in front of a small television, flipping through a selection of satellite channels as he intently views video footage of himself.
A hunched Bin Laden is wearing a dark wool cap with a blanket draped around his shoulders, holding a clicker and slightly rocking in his seat in spartan surroundings.
One of the videos is a message to the United States officials believe was recorded in October or November. In that video, bin Laden's beard has been dyed black and he was well-composed as he delivered his message.
The three other videos are practice sessions for videos he was planning to release to the world.
The videos were shown amid the Obama administration's decision not to release photos of the slain bin Laden and bury the al Qaeda leader at sea.
A senior intelligence official briefing reporters at the Pentagon said Monday's raid by U.S. forces yielded a significant amount of intelligence, and that a special federal task force -- including members of the CIA and FBI -- is combing through the material.
The official also said the DNA evidence unquestionably shows that the person shot and killed in the Pakistan compound was bin Laden.
The intelligence officials said they are trying to determine what bin Laden's death means to the future of al Qaeda and are combing through intelligence to get clues on where other top al Qaeda leaders are.
The No. 2 man in al Qaeda is Ayman al-Zawahiri; another top militant is Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S. born militant who is a leader in the group's Yemen branch.
This week, al-Awlaki eluded a drone attack in southern Yemen as security personnel continue their hunt for him.
CNN's Reza Sayah contributed to this report.
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