White House: Bin Laden unarmed during assault

As for publicly releasing photos and video, Brennan said in a series of appearances on morning television that ``this needs to be done thoughtfully,'' with careful consideration given to what kind of reaction the images might provoke.

At issue were photos of bin Laden's corpse and video of his swift burial at sea. Officials were reluctant to inflame Islamic sentiment by showing graphic images of the body. But they were also anxious to address the stories already building in Pakistan and beyond that bin Laden was somehow still alive.

In a move that could increase pressure for the release of photos, Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah said talk of bin Laden's death was ``premature,'' adding that the U.S. had not presented ``convincing evidence,'' the SITE Intelligence Group reported.

Obama, who approved the extraordinarily risky operation and witnessed its progression from the White House Situation Room, his face heavy with tension, reaped accolades from world leaders he'd kept in the dark as well as from political opponents at home.

Pakistan, however, called the raid ``unauthorized'' Tuesday and said it shouldn't serve as a precedent for future actions.

CIA Director Leon Panetta, in interviews with Time and PBS' ``Newshour,'' sketched the scene in the Situation Room as the tense final minutes of the raid played out.

``Once those teams went into the compound,'' he told PBS, ``I can tell you there was a time period of almost 20 or 25 minutes that we really didn't know just exactly what was going on.''

Then, Panetta told Time, when Adm. William McRaven, head of the Joint Special Forces Command, reported that the commandos had identified ``Geronimo'' _ the code name for bin Laden _ ``all the air we were holding came out.''

And when the helicopters left the compound 15 minutes later, Panetta said, the room broke into applause.

Carney filled in details about the assault, saying that bin Laden did resist the commandos, although he was not armed. One of bin Laden's wives, Carney said, was in the room and tried to charge at the U.S. assaulters.

Monday night, Republican and Democratic leaders gave Obama a standing ovation at an evening White House meeting that was planned before the raid but became a celebration of it, and an occasion to step away from the fractious political climate.

The episode was an embarrassment, at best, for Pakistani authorities as bin Laden's presence was revealed in their midst. The stealth U.S. operation played out in a city with a strong Pakistani military presence and without advance notice from Washington.

Questions persisted in the administration and grew in Congress about whether some elements of Pakistan's security apparatus might have been in collusion with al-Qaida in letting bin Laden hide in Abbottabad.

Brennan asked the question that was reverberating around the world: ``How did Osama bin Laden stay at that compound for six years or so and be undetected?''

``We have many, many questions about this,'' he said. ``And I know Pakistani officials do as well.''

Brennan said Pakistani officials were trying to determine ``whether there were individuals within the Pakistani government or military intelligence services who were knowledgeable.'' He questioned in particular why bin Laden's compound hadn't come to the attention of local authorities.

Feinstein, for her part, said Congress may consider docking the almost $1.3 billion dollars in annual aid to Pakistan if it turns out the Islamabad government knew bin Laden's whereabouts.

In an article published Tuesday by The Washington Post, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari denied suggestions his country's security forces may have sheltered bin Laden, and said their cooperation with the United States helped pinpoint his whereabouts.

As Americans rejoiced, they worried, too, that terrorists would be newly motivated to lash out. In their wounded rage, al-Qaida ideologues fed that concern. ``By God, we will avenge the killing of the Sheik of Islam,'' one prominent al-Qaida commentator vowed. ``Those who wish that jihad has ended or weakened, I tell them: Let us wait a little bit.''

In that vein, U.S. officials warned that bin Laden's death was likely to encourage attacks from ``homegrown violent extremists'' even if al-Qaida is not prepared to respond in a coordinated fashion now.

U.S. officials say the photographic evidence shows bin Laden was shot above his left eye, blowing away part of his skull.

He was also shot in the chest, they said. This occurred near the end of a frenzied firefight in a high-walled Pakistani compound where helicopter-borne U.S. forces found 23 children, nine women, a bin Laden courier who had unwittingly led the U.S. to its target, a son of bin Laden who was also slain, and more.

Bin Laden could have lived at the fortified compound for up to six years, putting him far from the lawless and harsh Pakistani frontier where he had been assumed to be hiding out.

U.S. officials said the information that ultimately led to bin Laden's death originally came from detainees held in secret CIA prison sites in Eastern Europe. There, agency interrogators were told of an alias used by a courier whom bin Laden particularly trusted.

(AP and news reports)