Obama Adviser On Meet the Press: Bin Laden Intel Cache ‘The Size of A Small College Library’

National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, making the rounds of the Sunday shows, appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press to discuss the large amount of data recovered in the raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. While Americans have been treated to video of bin Laden the (non)couch potato channel-surfing from his creepy uncle den on a TV he obviously stole from his compound’s guard shack, Donilon told David Gregory that there’s a lot more where that came from, and summed it up colorfully, saying of the find, “”It’s about the size, the CIA tells us, of a small college library.”

There are a number of key differences, of course, including the fact that the bin Laden cache is probably light on those crummy mimeographed self-published “textbooks” that your professors make you buy, and the information is probably actually useful.

Donilon wasn’t able to give many specifics on the “treasure trove” of captured intel, other than to say that it indicates bin Laden was much more involved in al Qaeda operations, and much less a simple figurehead, than had been previously thought. While most have urged caution, bin Laden’s operational importance to al Qaeda may be cause for optimism about the organization’s questionable  future.

Here’s Donilon’s brief interview, from NBC’s Meet the Press:

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