Did Waterboarding Help Catch bin Laden?; Left Behind in Bin Laden's Compound; Bin Laden's Escape Plan?; No Release of Osama bin Laden Photos; U.S. Demands Answers From Pakistan; Afghans Mourn Osama bin Laden's Death
BLITZER: The White House says the U.S. Navy SEALs who raided bin Laden's compound had the authority to kill him unless, unless he offered to surrender. CNN has new details to suggest bin Laden may have thought he could get away, if and when he was finally tracked down. Lisa Sylvester is joining us now. She's looking into this part of the story. And you're coming up, I should say, with some fascinating details.</s>LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. You know, Osama bin Laden and those closest to him, they made sure that they covered their tracks. They had high privacy walls, they even made a point of burning their trash. But bin Laden also seems to have had a contingency plan, cash and contacts on him at all times.</s>SYLVESTER (voice-over): Sewn into Osama bin Laden's clothing, we're told, was 500 euros, roughly the equivalent of $745 in cash. He also had two telephone numbers on him. This, according to a congressional source who attended to classified briefing. Clearly signs that he was prepared to make a quick getaway. It might not seem like a lot of cash, but former CIA operations officer and current Heritage senior fellow Peter Brookes says it would have been enough to use for bribes and transportation.</s>PETER BROOKES, FORMER ASST. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: In that part of the world, that's a significant amount of money. It's very interesting that it was euros and not dollars. But foreign currencies can be traded for much more off and on the black market. But that amount of money, between $750 and a thousand dollars probably would have gone very far.</s>SYLVESTER: Bin Laden was able to avoid capture for almost 10 years. Representative Luis Gutierrez, who is on the House Intelligence Committee, says bin Laden kept an extraordinarily low profile. He didn't have a lot of security at the compound and he may have been counting on key Pakistani sources to tip him off if U.S. forces were closing in.</s>REP. LUIS GUTIERREZ (D), ILLINOIS: So if he was expecting someone in the intelligence services, which could be -- you could figure he must have had some friends there to inform him. Guess what, since we didn't tell them, they couldn't tell him. We did it the right thing, we did the smart thing. We got Osama bin Laden.</s>SYLVESTER: The two phone numbers also allegedly sewn into bin Laden's clothing could now be valuable clues, along with a treasure trove of other information found at the compound, computers, hard drives, and documents.</s>MARCO VINCENZINO, GLOBAL STRATEGIES: Extremely important and it might not just be the leaders within the al Qaeda organization within Pakistan or parts of Afghanistan. There's a strong possibility that it can be to some other franchises, places -- maybe places in Yemen and north Africa.</s>SYLVESTER: Now, the fact that Osama bin Laden had this cash on hand suggests that he thought he would have had some time to get away, he had a plan and that he would have been receiving some outside help. Representative Gutierrez says the U.S. government should now press the Pakistani government to try to root out any individuals who might be secretly working with the al Qaeda network, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: And the clock is ticking because this information can move very, very quickly and some of the bad guys out there can take steps to prevent them being captured or go ahead with some sort of terror plot. Lisa, thanks very much. Let's dig a little bit deeper now on the cash and the contacts, the other evidence found on bin Laden's body. We're joined by CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank. What does this say to you, that he had 500 euros or about $750 stashed in his clothing?</s>PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: It sounds like, Wolf, this is enough cash, perhaps, to get to a second safe house. And it shows that bin Laden wanted to carry on living, to carry on providing strategic direction to the al Qaeda organization.</s>BLITZER: These two phone numbers that he had sewn into his clothing, I'm sure whoever is the recipient of that number, they probably disappeared because they are scared out of their minds right now, but what does that say to you?</s>CRUICKSHANK: It's unclear who do these phone numbers belong to. Are they fellow members of al Qaeda? Are they people within Pakistan, a support network over there, Wolf? And this, of course, brings up the whole question of Pakistan's involvement in all of this.</s>BLITZER: Well, what does it say to you, Pakistan's involvement or lack of involvement? Were they, as Leon Panetta has said, incompetent or were they part of the problem?</s>CRUICKSHANK: Well I was on the phone just recently with the former head of German intelligence and he said to me that from his perspective, it was almost impossible that elements of the ISI did not know where bin Laden was, given he was killed in a settled area of Pakistan. And this former director of German intelligence also said to me that he thought that probably the head of the ISI would also have know where bin Laden was. This is, obviously, some startling analysis here, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: If in fact that is true, where does that leave the U.S. right now and European allies and others? Pakistan, remember, they have a nuclear arsenal, probably at least a hundred nuclear bombs. What do you do? You walk away from Pakistan, you forget about this? What do you do?</s>CRUICKSHANK: That leaves the United States really between a rock and a hard place, because it's obviously and key alliance in terms of counterterrorism. Westerners are still going to the tribal areas of Pakistan, they're training with al Qaeda and they're trying to launch attacks back in the West. We saw just last week a plot broken up by al Qaeda against Germany. We saw the Pakistani Taliban in the last two days threatening to have revenge for bin Laden's death by launching an attack in the United States. So there's a still big terrorism problem coming out of Pakistan and the United States really needs the cooperation of the Pakistanis. So it's very, very difficult navigating this, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Will the Pakistani intelligence services allow the U.S. either to have access to those who have been detained and are being interrogated, individuals who were at the bin Laden compound? Will they provide the information to the U.S.? Can the U.S. trust any information the Pakistanis may provide? These are tough questions, Paul.</s>CRUICKSHANK: These are very tough questions. And this former director of German intelligence said that relations between his agency and the ISI, really, they broke down a lot. They were very, very frustrated with the cooperation they were getting from the ISI. And I think for the Americans, the feelings in private behind closed doors are much the same right now, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Paul Cruickshank, thanks very much. The war on terror which led to the killing of bin Laden has been a massive campaign of global resources for the United States. Bin Laden was located 3,493 days after the war in Afghanistan began back in October, 2001. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost the United States $1.3 trillion and counting. Some estimate, by the way, it's much larger than that. Certainly as far as the overall impact on the U.S. economy, at least double. Some say triple. It involved help from 60 countries, although the United States certainly carried almost all -- most of the burden, I should say. More than 7,200 U.S. and coalition troops have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some members of Congress think the president made a mistake today by refusing to release photos of Osama bin Laden's body. It's a source of heated discussion right now. And the question many Americans are asking, did Pakistani officials know about bin Laden's hideout? Did they help him in any way? The latest thinking on whether Pakistan was involved or incompetent. Much more on this part of the story coming up.