Ayman al Zawahiri is by no means a shoo-in as al Qaeda's next leader. He is not liked by many in the organization, and he faces competition from at least two others, one of them an American, a senior U.S. official tells NBC News.

In addition to having a face for radio, and not at all charismatic, he is not nearly as popular as bin Laden internally. He has a reputation as being arrogant," said the official. "We could see Anwar al-Awlaki move in, or Ilyas Kashmiri, a Pakistani militant.

Al-Awlaki, 40, is the New Mexico-born American leader of al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, who had contact with both Abdul Muttallab, the underwear bomber, and Col. Nidal Hassan, who killed 15 people at Ft. Hood two years ago...as well as two of the 9-11 bombers while preaching in San Diego. Al Awlaki is viewed as the most charismatic official in al Qaeda today and regularly used social media, including Facebook and a blog, to recruit members to the cause.   

Less well known is Ilyas Kashmiri, 46, who is a leader in the Pakistani terrorist organization Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, which is closely tied to Al-Qaeda. Kashmiri rebuilt its strength while collaborating with the Taliban. He is under indictment in the US for his role in the planned attacks on the Danish cartoonist who drew the Prophet Mohammed.

"They have a lot to sort out, said the official and it will be difficult for them to convene a meeting," said the official.

Computers could reveal al Qaeda money men
A senior U.S. official also says the initial exploitation of the computers and other digital devices retrieved from the bin Laden compound have proven that the materials "contain very valuable information."

The official, asked if there was donor information on the computers, hard drives, etc., would not deny it adding it was "entirely possible." The U.S. has long sought lists of donors to the al Qaeda cause, those private individuals in the Gulf states who have financed operations.

The strike team at Abbottabad retrieved 10 hard drives, five computers and more than 100 storage devices: disks, DVDs, and thumb drives, a U.S. intelligence official said.

In addition, the team retrieved written material, not further described, but in the past, U.S. forces have retrieved notebooks and address books that were helpful in locating other terrorists. The U.S. intelligence community is willingly releasing this materal, hoping that those who believe their names and personal data are on those devices will go to ground, thus reducing even further the terrorist threat.

U.S. officials did not initally have information on how much if any of the material was encrypted, or to what level. One official speculated that since the compound had no Internet access there was limited need for encryption.

Two U.S. officials tell NBC News say that public affairs specialists at agencies involved in Sunday's raid had discussed what to do with "death photos" of bin Laden in meetings over the past several months -- that it was part of the planning for the raids.

Neither official disclosed what the outcome of the discussions was but noted that everyone knew the ultimate decision would rest with the White House. The same official said he did not expect a decision today, but said it would not surprise him that much.

NBC's Robert Windrem reports: U.S. officials say there are indications that the Libyan army is having to deal with "strains," but they are uncertain whether the rebels can take advantage of them. The strains are seen in the Eastern area, particularly in logistics, maintaining the supply chain. There are also concerns about tribal strains in the military.

But, as one official said, a third-world military still has advantages over a rag-tag group of rebels. 

NBC's Courtney Kube reports: Despite speculation that the Tomahawk campaign in Libya had ended, coalition ships fired 14 more Tomahawk missiles over night.

There have now been at least 175 Tomahawk missiles fired into Libya since Saturday afternoon.