Hours later, a senior administration official began to revise that narrative to some White House reporters. Further revisions came Tuesday when White House Press Secretary Jay Carney gave a step-by-step description of the raid provided by the Defense Department that made clear bin Laden was unarmed and had no human shields.  Was it the fog of war, a bid to head off questions about killing bin Laden or perhaps a final propaganda salvo against the face of terrorism to Americans?  Asked about the initial erroneous details, Carney shrugged it off as part of the difficulty in disseminating information quickly on a chaotic situation taking place halfway around the world.  "What is true is that we provided a great deal of information with great haste," Carney said, noting that some of the details came in "piece by piece" with frequent updates and elaboration.  "We have worked very hard to declassify information in record speed to provide as much insight into this operation as we can, as quickly as we can, mindful obviously of the equities that are at stake here in terms of never revealing sources and methods, never compromising our intelligence procedures," Carney said.  However, his response failed to address why top officials including Brennan, a seasoned intelligence professional not known for misstatements, would go public with erroneous information that seemed intended to further disparage bin Laden.  What bin Laden photos could show  Brennan was the first senior administration official after Obama's nationally televised statement Sunday night to speak on the record to reporters about what happened in Pakistan, appearing at Monday's White House news briefing with Carney.  He said then that bin Laden "was engaged in a firefight with those that entered the area of the house he was in," adding that he didn't know whether or not bin Laden "got off any rounds."
Within 24 hours of Osama bin Laden's death in a U.S. assault on his compound in Pakistan, administration and government officials -- both cloaked in anonymity and on the record -- provided