By Siobhan Gordon
The minute U.S. troops reached Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, they set in motion not just the takedown of the world's most-wanted terrorist, but also the largest potential intelligence coup of the post-9/11 era.
Putting into action a specially designed Sensitive-Site Exploitation plan, the Navy Seals who conducted the raid carried off five computers, 10 hard drives and more than 100 storage devices, such as DVDs and removable flash drives, U.S. officials said.
The intelligence find is a jolt to bin Laden's network that could force its terror operatives to move into areas or initiate communications that make them more easily detectable.
A Central Intelligence Agency task force, which has already conducted a preliminary analysis of the material, is hunting for leads on the location of bin Laden's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is widely expected to ascend to the top of al Qaeda, as well as information about new plots, names of other terrorists and any information about whether members of the Pakistani government helped conceal bin Laden.
"The real benefit to our security from the raid by the Navy Seals is we've recovered a treasure trove of intelligence that can be used to go after bad guys all over the world," said Sen. Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat and member of the Senate's homeland-security committee. "Our challenge now is to make the most of it and put it to the best use."
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT