Bin Laden, you're so vain, you probably think this raid was about you

SEAL Team 6 captured a number of Osama bin Laden's home videos, among stores of what is described as, "the single largest collection of senior terrorist materials ever," according to "a senior intelligence official," quoted by ABC News.

The government today released five videos found in Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, showing the al Qaeda leader preparing a message to the United States and watching himself on television. ...

The second video, which runs over a minute long, shows bin Laden watching himself on television and holding the remote control to change the channels between what appear to be Arabic news channels.

As the reporter points out, the value of the documents and other materials captured during the raid is astounding. In this war their value can be compared to the breaking of Japan's naval codes during World War II or the Enigma machine that enabled the Allies to read Hitler's signal in near real time. These materials are an intelligence dissection of al Qaeda.

As I have said before, the materials brought from bin Laden's compound are so valuable that they make his death almost incidental to the raid's success. Almost, that is.

Update: Another ABC report:

U.S. intelligence is now in possession of a veritable "playbook" of al Qaeda operations -- from potential terror attack targets to information on international safe houses and top commanders -- thanks to the Navy SEAL raid that took down Osama bin Laden Sunday, officials told ABC News today.

The cache of electronic and handwritten materials obtained by the SEALs includes numerous hallmark al Qaeda plots including attacks on infrastructure targets such as water supply and transportation including rail and air, in what one official described as a "strategic guide for how to attack the U.S." In the past, al Qaeda planned for attacks on water supplies have included an interest in mining dams and in poisoning water supply. Intelligence experts have also have found what appears to be information about safe houses around the world and about al Qaeda leadership.

Courtesy my son: