Washington: The US is trying to identify terrorist threats or plans hidden in the huge cache of material recovered from the hideout of slain al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, a senior official has said.
"The top priority is to identify any threat information and to disseminate it widely within the US government and with our foreign partners. Of course, other top priority is to exploit the information to attract leads to other members of al-Qaeda," the intelligence official said on condition of anonymity.
"The treasure trove of information have provided some golden nuggets of information on communications within the al-Qaeda and we hope to get a better sense as it continues," he said.
The CIA, which has set up a task force, to go through every piece of material obtained during the raid, said that the US is still cataloging them.
The official, however did not give the quantity of material obtained during the raid, except for saying that most of the information, would however remain classified for long.
"We want to make sure that we methodically process this material so that we get the highest quality intelligence from this collection," he said.
In one of the audio-less video which was released by the US yesterday, bin Laden was very critical of the US and denigrating capitalism, according to the official.
"In the material that we have seen so far, he has continued to show interest in transportation and infrastructure targets," the official said, adding that the al-Qaeda Laden was planning to attack the US homeland.
54-year-old bin Laden, the world's most wanted terrorist, was shot dead early this month by US forces in a successful operation in Pakistan's garrison city of Abbottabad.
This week, the US Department of Homeland Security issued a general alert about security of railway and mass transit systems in large cities, which was based on the information obtained from these materials. PTI
