Home Movies of bin Laden Watching Himself on The News

KOMPAS.com - Extraordinary home videos taken from Osama bin Laden's hideout show the terrorist leader watching news coverage of himself on television.

The videos were seized by Navy SEALs after Bin Laden was killed Monday. They were shown to reporters this afternoon by intelligence officials.

The five movies offer the first public glimpse at Bin Laden's life behind the walls of his compound in suburban Pakistan.

The government-selected clips also provide an opportunity for the U.S. to paint Bin Laden in an unflattering light to his supporters.

The videos include outtakes of his propaganda films and, taken together, portray him as someone obsessed with his own image and how he is portrayed to the world - even from the confines of the compound.

The videos, released by U.S. intelligence officials Saturday, were offered as further proof that Navy SEALs killed the world's most wanted terrorist this week.

But they also served to show bin Laden as vain, someone obsessed with his portrayal by the world's media.

One of the movies shows bin Laden, his unkempt beard streaked in gray, sitting on the floor, wrapped in a brown blanket and holding a remote control.

He flipped back and forth between what appears to be live news coverage of himself. The old, small television was perched on top of a desk with a large tangle of electrical wires running to a nearby control box.

In another, he has apparently dyed and neatly trimmed his beard for the filming of a propaganda video.