US: bin Laden documents release appropriate

WASHINGTON - The White House on Thursday said the anniversary of al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden's death is the appropriate time to release documents seized in his compound in Pakistan a year ago.

Speaking at a regular press briefing, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the release is part of the process of reviewing these documents, retrieved in a raid to bin Laden's compound a year ago in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

"Because of the renewed interest on this anniversary of the mission that led to bin Laden's demise, this was deemed the appropriate time to release them," said Carney, noting the process of "identifying them, declassify them, reviewing and analyzing them require considerable time."

Altogether 17 documents and related commentary and analysis were released earlier in the day on the website of Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, showing bin Laden had remained focused on attacking the United States until his last days.

The documents are among the more than 6,000 US Navy SEALs seized during their raid last year on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad. They were found on the five computers, dozens of hard drives and more than 100 storage devices found in the compound. They include digital, audio and video files, printed materials, recording devices and handwritten documents.