nbc's jim miklaszewski is on duty at the pentagon tonight. jim, good evening. >> good evening, brian. u.s. senior military intelligence officials tell us those navy s.e.a.l.s found so much intelligence at that compound, that they didn't have the time to gather it all up and take it, but what they did grab is that handwritten journal you talked about, and in it, bin laden talks about attacking the united states and creating mass casualties and intact, trying to find ways to insert secret operatives, al qaeda operatives, into the united states. according to one u.s. official, bin laden woke up every morning and tried to come up with new ways to attack the united states. bin laden, however, at one point sounds frustrated when he says that the only way to get the attention of the u.s. government is by killing large numbers of americans. at the same time, the u.s. recovered direct correspondence between bin laden and some of the other al qaeda operatives about possible plots. most of this material was found in what appeared to be bin laden's office

nbc's jim miklaszewski joins us from washington with the latest. >> good evening, lester. u.s. intelligence officials are calling this the biggest haul of secrets from a top terrorist leader ever. it includes bin laden home videos which they were very eager to release. >> reporter: this is the video the white house wants the world to see. osama bin laden, once the world's most notorious terrorist, seen here with a tv remote as he dials up old videos of himself from a time when the mere mention of his name brought fear. but these are images of an old man in a stocking cap bundled up against the cold. and in spartan surroundings, nothing close to a mansion. unlike earlier videos where his beard is died black, here it's almost totally gray. in fact, u.s. officials say it's the same gray beard bin laden had when the navy s.e.a.l.s shot and killed him. >> at the end, here he died isolated, a prisoner as much as if he'd been in maximum security. >> reporter: other videos show bin laden stumbling through prepared remarks, looking off camera for some sort of direction. but if bin laden

jim miklaszewski, we'll be speaking with you next hour. thanks so much. >> you bet. >> new details are emerging in pakistan this morning on osama bin laden's years of hiding in plain sight. ann curry is in islamabad with more. >> reporter: multiple pakistani intelligence sources are reportedly saying one of osama bin laden's wives now in custody is saying they lived even closer to islamabad, for two years before moving to the compound in abbottabad. this would mean bin laden was hiding for at least a total of seven years in pakistan's urban areas. right under the nose of this country's intelligence services. this can only fuel tensions between the united states and pakistan. coordinated protests announcing the u.s. raid that killed osama bin laden struck multiple cities in pakistan on friday. as al qaeda reacted for the first time, threatening americans on its official media website. soon with god's help, we shall flip their celebrations into sorrow, and their blood shall mix with their tears. >> in al qaeda's language, soon could be anyth

nbc's jim miklaszewski is live again for us at the pentagon. mik, good morning. >> good morning, savannah. before we get to those reports of that intelligence, al qaeda has today confirmed the death of osama bin laden. over the years they have been pretty prompt in confirming the deaths of their leaders. they do confirm that al qaeda -- that osama bin laden was killed. and in this release, which is in arabic, but the translation that we have received, al qaeda is threatening retaliation, saying that the death, the blood of the osama bin laden will not be wasted and they're exhorting their followers to continue the jihad in osama bin laden's absence, savannah. >> all right, mik. let's get to that intelligence. obviously, there were plots uncovered. but how far along do officials think these were? was this more in the nature of aspirational plots? >> officials we're talking to are leaning toward the aspirational part. over the years we've seen a lot of this kind of reporting where osama bin laden would send out these kinds of ideas as if he was s

jim miklaszewski at the pentagon, jim, what can you tell us about alert levels? especially at the u.s. bases that would make sense? say the sprawling base in kabul. >> we can say nobody has hard intelligence that there would be any retaliation against military bases anywhere around the world. but the threat levels have been raised as a precaution. as a matter of fact, this is the kind of exercise that has been in place for years should the news hit that osama bin laden was killed or captured. and i can tell you from the special operation forces and the cia, that this is the best possible outcome in terms of getting osama bin laden. one of the fears, of course, is that he may be killed in one of those drone missile strikes, or die of natural causes. and the world wouldn't know about it. but in this case, according to officials up on capitol hill and elsewhere, not only was osama bin laden shot and killed, but they do have his body. and we're still seeking clarification, because there are conflicting reports whether this happened in pakistan or afghanistan. as you

jim miklaszewski from the pentagon again tonight. jim, thanks. now we want to return to the scene of this raid in pakistan. it's north of islamabad. nbc news correspondent stephanie gosk is there tonight. new information about the u.s. surveillance of this compound before special forces finally moved in. stephanie, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. we keep on hearing surprise that bin laden was capable of hiding in plain sight. but was he really in plain sight? the compound was identified last august. once it was identified, it was put under 24-hour surveillance. in that time up until the actual raid itself bin laden was never actually seen. they acted on intelligence that fell short of that physical proof. that in effect bin laden had put himself in a kind of prison of his own making. so it's not entirely that surprising that when we talked to people in this community they said they were surprised that he was down the street. also, keep in mind there was a $25 million bounty on his head. that is a lot of money and a lot of incentiv

. >> thank you so much, jim miklaszewski. i want to turn to white house correspondent mike viqueira. and we hear that the president was sitting in the situation room watching the operation go down. >> yes, an extraordinary report from our savannah guthrie this morning, in the situation room over the previous weeks, there were increasing meetings of the national security principles and when we talk about the principle, we are talking about the upper echelon of the apparatus from the president and the vice president and the secretary of state and the ci, a director on down to the homeland security director and so on and so forth, and culminating yesterday at 7:00 p.m. eastern time when the president was informed that the so-called hvt, the high valued target, they were after was indeed osama bin laden, and a positive identification was made. then the public relations wheels started spinning and the choreography to get the camera crews back into the white house sunday night late so that the president could make an extraordinary

pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski joins us with more. >> reporter: a senior u.s. intelligence official says that the information gathered at bin laden's compound in pakistan provided the single largest collection of senior terrorist material ever. but the star of the show was never before-before-seen home v bin laden himself, and it wasn't pretty. the videotapes that first appear to be all too familiar, a strident osama bin laden delivering another anti-american rant. but in these tapes seize bid navy s.e.a.l.s we get the first gl glimpse of bin laden not as the world's most notorious terrorist but as a prisoner in his own compound. armed only with a tv remote, bin laden's watching videos of himself. he appears as an old man in a stocking cap wrapped in a woollen blanket against the cold. the room itself is sparse and hardly a mansion. and unlike the stage videos where his beard is dyed black, here it's mostly gray. u.s. officials say it's the same gray beard bin laden had when the american commandos shot and killed him. >> and at the end, here he dies isolated, a

jim miklaszewski is in washington with more. mick. >> they're sifting through the thousands of al qaeda documents that the u.s. military gathered up during the raid on the bin laden compound in pakistan. most of this information is being very closely held, but they couldn't resist releasing the osama bin laden tapes. the videotapes at first appear to be all too familiar. the striking osama bin laden delivering yet another anti-american rachblt but in these, we get the first glimpse of bin laden not as the world's most notorious terrorist but as a prisoner in his own compound. armed only with a tv remote, bin laden is watching videos of himself. he appears as an old man in a stocking cap wrapped in a blanket against the room's cold. the room is sparse. unlike the staged videos where his beard is dyed black, here it's mostly gray. u.s. officials say it's the same gray beard he had when they shot and killed him. >> here he died, isolated, a prisoner, as much as if he had been in maximum security for the better part of five years. >

. >> nbc's jim miklaszewski live for us from the pentagon with more. mik, what can you tell us? >> we've heard it described as motherlode, a treasure trove. safe to say there's tons of this stuff that these hundreds of analysts will be going through both at the cia and fbi. they're obviously going to be looking for identities of people, locations, telephone numbers, addresses, paper trails, bank accounts, follow the money. it's true in politics and in terrorism. if you follow the money, you can find out where the next terrorist strike may be. and, of course, they're going to look very carefully to determine, you know, for a long time we've heard about these so-called sleeper cells, al qaeda operatives believed to be in europe, in canada, in the united states just waiting for the right signal to trigger some kind of terrorist attack in any of these locations. so i believe that some of these analysts are going to be looking m particularly for that to see if there's anything that could be pending in europe, canada or the united states. quite frankly in the interim, while there is a

jim miklaszewski at the pentagon. mik, thanks so much. >>> and pakistani intelligence is now denying that it had a role in helping the bin laden hide out in plain sight in abbottab abbottabad, insisting they had no idea he was there. ann curry is live now in pakistan with more on the official reaction. and, ann, i know you are over there. there's a "wall street journal" piece today. it's the top of the fold here in washington that says that signs point to some pakistan link. what are they saying there in pakistan about whether they aided or abetted osama bin laden? >> they deny it categorically as you might imagine. they are very much on the defensive, norah. they are very concerned about public perception right now. in fact, the foreign minister actually went -- the prime minister has publicly said that it's not pakistan's intelligence that is on the line here. it's the whole world that failed in terms of finding osama bin laden before now. and one official, however, a former national security adviser, norah, express

jim miklaszewski reports on why the top flight u.s. navy blue angels were barred from flight on this graduation day. >> reporter: they're the u.s. military's premier precision flying team, the blue angels. thrilling crowds for more than 60 years, but it came close to crashing down this week. it happened at an air show this sunday in lynchburg, virginia. in perfect formation, the wing tips of the faa jets appeared to almost touch. at 600 miles per hour, the slightest mistake could be catastrophic. at this point, four of the angels planned to execute a crowd pleaser, the diamond barrel roll break, as they have done hundreds of times before, the naval aviators enter a steep dive. as they pull up, the commander in the first plane realizes they're too low to the ground and they're forced to break off the maneuver. this is what the barrel roll is supposed to look like. as the jets separate in what looks like a starburst formation. in the incident this week, as the blue angels come out of their dive, navy officials say they're dangerously clo

jim miklaszewski is the chief nbc pentagon correspondent. we have the details. five computers. dvds. over 100 thumb drives. so this is really a treasure trove of information. what do we understand about the analysis to be done on this? >> reporter: well, you know, there are hundreds of analysts that we understand that are assigned to this task force for both the fbi and the cia. they're trying to glean any information they can first about identities of people that they may not have known about before and the attorney general, eric holder, yesterday up on capitol hill, told lawmakers that, yes, we have already taken names off that intelligence and put them on a watch list. so, it's already gleaned some valuable intelligence. and that's just scratching the surface, actually. everybody was really surprised at the amount of potential al qaeda information that they found at that site. they didn't think that osama bin laden would have been that careless. and when you said most of the time, those navy s.e.a.l.s, one of the reason for the mission to stretch out to 40 minutes was becaus

jim miklaszewski at the pentagon, jim, what can you tell us about alert levels? especially at the u.s. bases that would make sense? say the sprawling base in kabul. >> we can say nobody has hard intelligence that there would be any retaliation against military bases anywhere around the world. but the threat levels have been raised as a precaution. as a matter of fact, this is the kind of exercise that has been in place for years should the news hit that osama bin laden was killed or captured. and i can tell you from the special operation forces and the cia, that this is the best possible outcome in terms of getting osama bin laden. one of the fears, of course, is that he may be killed in one of those drone missile strikes, or die of natural causes. and the world wouldn't know about it. but in this case, according to officials up on capitol hill and elsewhere, not only was osama bin laden shot and killed, but they do have his body. and we're still seeking

nbc's jim miklaszewski. on duty tonight, jim, good evening. >> reporter: brian, despite earlier reports, it turns out there was no prolonged firefight, and the navy s.e.a.l.s themselves actually did most of the shooting. when the s.e.a.l.s first broke into the compound, they came under fire from bin laden's courier. the s.e.a.l.s fired back and killed him. it's the only time the s.e.a.l.s were shot at. for the first time, we're getting dramatic new details on the final seconds of osama bin laden's life. heading upstairs, the s.e.a.l.s shot and killed bin laden's 19-year-old son on the second floor. hearing the shots, bin laden peered over the railing above. the s.e.a.l.s fired but missed bin laden who ducked back into his bedroom. as the s.e.a.l.s stormed up the stairs, two young girls ran from the room. one s.e.a.l. scooped up the girls and carried them out of harm's way. the two other s.e.a.l.s rushed the bedroom door where one s.e.a.l. shot bin laden's wife, in the leg, and the other shot bin laden twice.

nbc news pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski reports that u.s. officials are providing a clearer picture of the kind of fire fight that took place here. it wasn't an intense back and forth but really more one-sided. mostly it was the navy s.e.a.l.s doing the shooting. it's what they call a precision-clearing operation. >> stephanie gosk, thank you. we wanted to let you know as well, ann curry has now tonight arrived in pakistan. her reporting will begin airing tomorrow morning on "today." >>> back here at home tonight, flooding in the midwest is at such crisis levels, it's led to some extreme measures. as we told you last night, government engineers are actually blowing up levees to direct water away from inundated areas and some areas of population, but that's causing more problems downstream, and there are big fears for places like memphis in the days ahead. nbc's ron mott is there for us tonight. good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening to you. officials in arkansas today discovered the body of a man in floodwaters there. in memphis, the

jim miklaszewski is live at the pentagon with the details we know. mick, good morning to you. >> good morning, matt. remarkably, u.s. intelligence officials weren't even really sure that osama bin laden was at that compound north of islamabad. in fact, according to one u.s. official, there was no smoking gun to put him there. but in the end, the evidence was compelling enough for president obama to give those navy s.e.a.l.s the green light to attack. friday morning, just minutes before departing the white house on his way to inspect tornado damage in alabama, president obama gave the order to launch the operation to kill osama bin laden. more than two days later, u.s. special operations forces attacked bin laden's heavily fortified compound at abbottabad 35 miles north of islamabad. 1:00 a.m. monday morning pakistan time, in a scene straight out of an action thriller, u.s. helicopters loaded with american commandos closed in for the kill. on approach, one helicopter had mechanical problems and crash-landed but no one on board was hurt. within seconds

nbc's jim miklaszewski explains how the al qaeda leader was brought to justice. >> reporter: friday morningt minutes before departing the white house on his way to inspect tornado damage in alabama, president obama gave the order to launch the operation to kill osama bin laden. more than two days later, u.s. special operations forces attacked bin laden's heavily fortified compound at abatabad, in a scene straight out of an action thriller, commandos closed in for the kill. on approach, one helicopter had mechanical problems, but no one was hurt. special forces teams flooded the compound and immediately came under heavy fire. it was obvious bin laden would not be taken alive. u.s. officials say armed with an automatic rifle the al qaeda leader fired on the americans who then shot and killed bin lat laden. >> then the first bang came, three other consecutive bangs came and then there was one fifth, final bang which made the whole sky orange. that's when i thought this is something really big. >> in the exchange navy s.e.a.l.s killed two al qaeda couriers and one of bin laden's adult sons. one

jim miklaszewski reports. >> reporter: as the first s.e.a.l. team broke into the compound, they came under fire. killing bin laden's currier and the currier's wife caught in the crossfire. the second team entered the first floor of the residence where they could see a shadow holding something behind his back, he was unarmed. as they moved through the house, they found several stashes of weapons and barricades intended to slow down any invaders. the americans ran into bin laden's 19-year-old son who was shot and killed. he, too, was unarmed. once on the third floor, the seals charge under to the compound. standing in his pajamas and fired two shots, one to the chest, one to the head. although there were weapons in the room, bin laden was also unarmed. instead of a chaotic firefight, u.s. officials now describe the american command assault as a precision clearing operation. in fact, most of the 40 minutes inside the compound was spent gathering up intelligence, computers, hard drives and files that could provide valuable information on al qaeda m

coming up at 5:00, nbc's jim miklaszewski will give us more on this and what the pakistanis knew. >> someone renting a home tried to switch the dryer from gas to electric is what caused that house in rockville to explode overnight. tracy wilkins talked to neighbors who heard the blast. >> the first order of business after daylight was to move debris from out of the treetops near the home so that investigators could work without the threat of large chunks of roof falling from overhead. out in investigation is under way. >> at 2:55, boom, just a huge boom. >> the neighbor says that when she and her husband heard the crash overnight they thought that maybe it was a thunderstorm. they got out to check. >> my husband came running out and the house across the street's on fire, and i came out and i said the house across the street is gone. >> hundred of personnel and utility workers scrambled to the 11200 block of ashley drive just after 3:00 a.m. >> we received several 911 calls for either a fire or explosion in the house. >> everything was in flames. i -- i'm still just kind of in shock.

especially after the raid on bin laden's compound, which as jim miklaszewski has been reporting, yieldedives, people starting to analyze that intelligence right now. so, no, i can't imagine the top leaders of al qaeda are going to be getting together anytime soon. but the way al awlaki able to reach out to supporters was never in person. he used online. he used computers, internet, sermons broadcast from anonymous locations to bring out al qaeda's message. he was really the person who championed the transition, i guess, you could call it to al qaeda digital. >> richard engel following the developments there from benghazi, libya. thank you. >>> an american man thinks he should get at least part of the $27 million reward for bin laden's death. gary faulkner, the so-called osama bin laden hunter, tried 11 times to track down the al qaeda leader. in fact, pakistan arrested him last june for trying to cross into afghanistan. the state department's offered $25 million for bin laden's capture. and then two airline groups put up another $2 million. faulkner claims the publicity surrounding his a

intelligence and treasure trove of intelligence on that raid on bin laden's compound and as jim miklaszewski says there are hundreds of people poring over the intelligence. and behind the scenes details of intense anxiety-filled moments inside of the white house sunday afternoon while this operation was conducted. the president's top advisers inside the situation with him, and they were able to receive live video updates and we have the white house pictures released inside the situation room which we can show you and in the pictures you can see that the president is sitting there stone-faced directing his team. you can see hillary clinton with her hand over her mouth, and then the vice president joe biden fingering his rosary beads in some of the tense moments as a top counterterrorism official called tense moments. and they were using military commandos was a risky situation and gutsy move by the president as described by one official. they could have used b-2 bombers to drop 3,2,000 bombs, but they wanted navy s.e.a.l.s because they wanted real evidence, dna evidence that osama bin laden h

according to jim miklaszewski, the s.e.a.l.s came under fire right away. laden's courier shot at them when they first raided the compound. the s.e.a.l.s returned fire killing him. as they raced up the stairs, they shot and killed bin laden's 19-year-old son on the second floor. the commandos looked up to discover bin laden himself peering down over the railing above. they fired on him but missed as he ran back into his bedroom. two young girls suddenly ran from that room. one s.e.a.l. grabbed and pulled them out of the line of fire. that's when two other s.e.a.l.s rushed the bedroom. one shot bin laden's wife in the leg as she approached. the other shot bin laden twice at close range killing him. the president obama watched the whole operation in real time from the situation room at the white house. hours ago he met privately with members of that team, the s.e.a.l. team 6. here is what the president said moments ago after meeting those commandos who pulled off the most high-profile operation in the history of the s.e.a.l.s. >> they chose to serve in a time

. >> jim miklaszewski is our chief pentagon correspondent. good to see you today. what are we learning about the courier who was really the key to our military finding bin laden? >> well, what was interesting about this courier is that the cia and other intelligence agencies really never knew his real name for the longest time. they did get a nickname, al kuwaiti, i think, was the original description. and through aggressive interrogation techniques were able to identify at least who is closest to osama bin laden, this most trusted courier. but that took a couple of years before they really found him. and then it took several years of tracking him down. and then once they did that, last year about nine, ten months ago, they followed him to that compound. and that's what led them eventually to killing osama bin laden. >> and now we have al qaeda saying yes, indeed, osama bin laden has been killed. and the organization says it will release a voice recording of bin laden made the week before he was killed. do you know anything about what's expected to be contained in

jim miklaszewski joins us live now. describe for us the latest sequence of events as we understand it and then secondly i want to know if it's too much of a blanket statement to say this was just a navy s.e.a.l. operation. >> first of all, the biggest misnomer and myth about this operation was that there was a prolonged firefight throughout that 40-minute operation and as it turns out as we found out a couple days ago, it lasted just very briefly at the very beginning. the first navy s.e.a.l. team hit the compound and they took small arm fire from osama bin laden's courier. the s.e.a.l.s fired back and almost immediately took out that courier and unfortunately his wife. they made their way into the residents and they rushed upstairs and countered the 19-year-old son of osama bin laden. looked up. saw bin laden looking over the railing. shot at him. missed. bin laden ducked back into the bedroom. s.e.a.l.s scurried up the steps and within a matter of seconds killed osama bin laden with a shot to the chest and to the head

>> jim miklaszewski, thank you very much. john brennan is the president's top counterterrorism adviser. mr. brennan, good morning to you. >> good morning, meredith. >> you were in the situation room on sunday as this raid went down. you described it as the minutes passing like days. can you tell me about that moment when you realized the raid had been a success? >> well, i think we were increasingly hopeful as the operation was going on, that we were able to get the person we were after, but we were not confident that the mission was a success until all of our brave soldiers were able to come out and bring the body out. so, one of the things that the president was most concerned about was ensuring the safety and security of the u.s. personnel that were involved in this mission. >> at this point you the administration has not released either video of bin laden's burial at sea or video of his dead body. does the administration plan to release that? if so, when? and what is the hesitation at this point? >> we have been releasing

. >> nbc pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski said this morning that when it comes to reporting on the military, quote, it is an absolute truism that first reports are always wrong, and you accept the fact that there's going to be a change narrative. tonight, it's time to change the narrative. again. >> america will ensure that justice is done. >> his killing was appropriate. >> osama bin laden is dead, and you'll just have to take his word for it. >> photo, no no. >> it's breaking news right now. savannah guthrie reporting from the white house. >> the president has decided not to have these photos released. >> the photos of osama bin laden -- >> described to me by several sources as ghastly. >> the photograph of his blown up face. >> a gaping wound over the left eye. >> brain tissue. >> no real strong drumbeat for releasing it. >> it's not necessary. >> i personally think it's morbid. >> i support the president's decision. >> i share the president's view. >> lindsay graham said he respectfully disagreed with the president's decision. >> because everyone knows photographs can be ma

. >>> we turn to nbc chief pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski. let's get right to it. what do you think will happen an hour from now? what will we learn? >> there are reports out there this morning that the u.s. intelligence officials are prepared to release videos of osama bin laden. they're in the compound in abbottabad. on his daily routine conducting his daily life which in fact was pretty restricted, according to some u.s. officials who say he may never have left that compound for the past several years. the reason apparently we're being told that the video is coming out is not only to show what kind of life he was leading but also as sort of a proof that he in fact was there. although as we discussed before, there's very little question about the fact that those u.s. military special operations forces did in fact shoot and kill osama bin laden. >> indeed. let's talk about the pakistan -- the pentagon getting ready for this news conference in about an hour or so. a lost challenges to determine exactly how much to release. what kind of pressure is the pentagon gett

. >> nbc's jim miklaszewski joins me live from the pentagon. again, we've spoken to you several times there are so people out there wondering why the story -- and i don't want to use the word "change" -- but the account of what happened in the compound has been modified sense we first learned of bin laden's killing. >> reporter: well, even there we heard from attorney general eric holder justifying killing osama bin laden even though he was unarmed because he was an unlawful combatant. leon panetta indicated to brian williams, in their interview last night, that essentially, look, you know, he was fair game and you have to understand that when those soldiers broke into that room, it was not clear, it was dark, his one of his wives charged at one of the special operators in the room, she was shot in the leg, and from all of the conversations we have had with special operations forces who have been involved in operations like this, between shooting the wife and shooting bin laden, it's believed that would have been almost instantaneous. pop, pop

. >> general campbell, jim miklaszewski with nbc. with the death of osama bin laden, there is a growing chorus of voices here in washington. some on political political that say -- capitol hill that say, well, his death should allow the u.s. withdraw large numbers of troops from afghanistan. and essentially end the u.s. participation in that war. now, do you believe that? if so, why? if it's not the case, why not? >> thanks, jim, for the question. bin laden certainly the leader of al qaeda, certainly important man of that organization, but one man does not make this war on terrorism. in the short-term we have not seen a big impact on his death here. there has been a lot of talk about revenge about coming at both the coalition and afghan forces here. we have not seen that here since the first of may since they talked about that. but again i don't think that one person makes the war on terror here. they'll find somebody to replace him. they are going to have some issues i think without bin laden there based on fundraising and the abili

jim miklaszewski at the pentagon. thank you very much. michael, good morning. >> good morning, matt. >> this story keeps evolving. some would say it keeps changing. is this a fog of war or is this something else we're getting a glimpse into? >> i think it's close to what may have happened. it may evolve over the weeks ahead but i think now that we've got the teams back and they've been debriefed, we've got the team's story. >> this was a number one terror suspect in the world. this was a mastermind against so many americans. was this only a kill mission or did u.s. intelligence want at least a little time with osama bin laden to try to find out if he knew anything or was planning any current ploots? >> i think a nighttime raid where these guys are coming in all charged up for a fire fight initially even the third floor, i don't think they're going to take a chance to try to capture him and do a debriefing. >> as we're hearing reports coming from a 12-year-old daughter that i have not confirmed personally but that he was captured before he

nbc's pentagon correspondent, jim miklaszewski, has details on that. mik, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning. what u.s. intelligence is looking for is names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mails, anything that could potentially help head off future terrorist attacks. but what analysts found already is that osama bin laden was more in charge than anyone had thought. despite the video of an aging bin laden fumbling with a tv remote appearing out of touch, raids on the compound show bin laden was calling the shots still for al qaeda. if he was so out of touch, how did he survive so long, so close to pakistan's capital and a military academy? the immediate focus is on al qaeda secrets which provide chilling new details. the intelligence shows bin laden was intent on killing americans in large numbers. documents show planning for attacks on moving trains out of new york, washington, d.c., and los angeles, aimed at producing mass casualties. the top priority in searching those thousands of documents is to determine if any terrorist attacks are immin