Porn found in bin Laden home

THE massive cache of computer files taken from Osama bin Laden's compound contained a considerable quantity of pornographic videos, US officials say.

The claim added a discordant note to the public image of the Islamist militant who long denounced the West for its lax sexual mores.

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, would not say whether there was evidence that bin Laden or the other men living in the house had acquired or viewed the material.

The discovery of the pornography may not be surprising in a collection of five computers, 10 hard drives and dozens of USB drives and CDs whose age and past ownership is not known.

But the disclosure could fuel accusations of hypocrisy against the founder of al-Qaeda, who was 54 and lived with three wives at the time of his death, and will be welcomed by counter-terrorism officials because it could tarnish his legacy and erode the appeal of his brand of religious extremism.

In a 2002 ''letter to the American people'' bin Laden denounced US culture for its exploitation of women's bodies in dress, advertising and popular culture.

''Your nation exploits women like consumer products or advertising tools, calling upon customers to purchase them,'' he wrote. ''You plaster your naked daughters across billboards in order to sell a product without any shame. You have brainwashed your daughters into believing they are liberated by wearing revealing clothes, yet in reality all they have liberated is your sexual desire.''

A team of intelligence analysts under the CIA's direction has been reviewing the material seized from bin Laden's house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by the navy SEAL team that killed him. Officials have said the material shows that bin Laden was making notes about new ways to attack the US and sending instructions by courier to subordinates and al-Qaeda affiliates.

The Obama administration has already released unflattering video footage of a grey-bearded bin Laden, wearing a cloak and a ski cap and clutching a remote control while watching his own statements on television.

The suggestion that he must have dyed his beard for video recordings and was intensely concerned with his image could erode his reputation in the Muslim world as a charismatic and selfless leader.

A White House spokesman confirmed that US interrogators had questioned bin Laden's three wives for the first time on Thursday, 10 days after they were taken from the compound by Pakistani security forces. He declined to give more details, saying, ''I can't characterise the interaction.''

Senior Pakistani police officials, meanwhile, said a suicide attack that killed more than 80 paramilitary cadets was probably retaliation for an army offensive in Pakistan's tribal areas and not for the death of bin Laden, as the Pakistani Taliban claimed.

The Pakistani Taliban have recently claimed responsibility for attacks they did not initiate, the officials said, adding that they doubted that the suicide bombing was carried out by the group or that it was in revenge for the US raid.

They said the attack was instead probably the work of a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban that has been fighting the Pakistani army in the nearby tribal region of Mohmand, where the army has struggled for two years to subdue the insurgents.

NEW YORK TIMES