The real terror coup

Opinion: May 9, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Chicago Tribune: Clustering at their predetermined departure site, the two dozen American commandos juggled one heavy piece of carry-on baggage, a souvenir from their lightning visit to Pakistan. It was the lanky cadaver of a much-wanted global terrorist. But the two helicopters — the healthy Sikorsky Black Hawk and the backup Boeing Chinook — that choppered the raiders to Afghanistan also carried a delicious trove of electronic booty that may prove more valuable.

Tantalizing reports suggest that Osama bin Laden unwittingly bequeathed to his killers oodles of secret information.

CNN reports that Navy SEAL Team Six escaped with 10 hard drives, five computers and more than 100 storage devices such as DVDs, disks and thumb drives. Politico, meanwhile, quotes U.S. officials as saying the data devices hold “the mother lode of intelligence.” One unnamed source says, “They (the commandos) cleaned it out. Can you imagine what’s on Osama bin Laden’s hard drive?” Another delightful-to-read boast from an intel source: “Hundreds of people are going through (the data devices) now,” reportedly in Afghanistan and at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.

Think about the implications. We don’t know whether bin Laden was a hoarder — one of those clutter-hugging people who can’t part with old sandals. But he apparently has spent six years inside what’s now the world’s most notorious hideout.

What are the odds that bin Laden’s impromptu estate included lots of intriguing info about his associates, their locations and their plans? We’d like to think those odds are excellent.

How satisfying it would be to find in bin Laden’s files some clue to the whereabouts of his top aide, Egyptian physician Ayman al-Zawahri, or another of the senior al-Qaida terrorists who remain on the loose.

The faster that happens, the better.