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Thursday March 28, 2024

It’s fourth release of Osama cache seized by CIA

By Sabir Shah
November 04, 2017

Some 30 months after it had first released a cache of books and articles found in Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound in May 2011, the American CIA has now released almost 470,000 additional files that were seized during the killing of the much-dreaded Al-Qaeda founder.

As the ghost of Osama bin Laden (1957-2011) continues to haunt the American intelligence agencies even 78 months after he was killed in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1:00 am local time by a United States military operation, code-named “Operation Neptune Spear,” the US spymasters are now studying and analyzing the new collection that comprises of more than 18,000 document files, approximately 79,000 audio and image files and over 10,000 video files.

According to CIA’s November 1, 2017 Press release, the spy agency Director, Mike Pompeo, has authorized the fourth release of its kind “in the interest of transparency and to enhance public understanding of Al-Qaeda and its former leader.”

It is imperative to note that the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) had previously released documents from its collection on May 20, 2015, March 1, 2016, and January 19, 2017 respectively.

The CIA Press release states: “The material contains audio, document, image, video and software operating system files. The material is posted in the original Arabic and in as close to the original form as possible, modified only so the files cannot be edited.”

The new material includes:

His personal diary, personal photographs of his family and insight into the terror network's global leadership, documents and audio and video files - including a clip showing his son Hamza as an adult, at his wedding, although his exact whereabouts are unknown.

The hundreds of gigabytes’ worth of files also include Osama Bin Laden’s personal 228-page handwritten journal and more than 18,000 document files.

Osama’s journal contains "thoughts on the 2011 Arab uprisings, which bin Laden wanted his men to capitalize on."

The audio and image files include practice reels for public speeches, audio correspondence, viral YouTube videos like “Charlie Bit My Finger,” imagery gathered by Al-Qaeda for various purposes, the September 11th conspiracy documentary “Loose Change 2,” which is probably the second edition of “Loose Change” that argues that the September 11th attacks were masterminded by the American government, not Osama bin Laden. 

The recovered material includes a wealth of videos on crocheting baskets, baby socks, beanie caps, kids’ cartoons, Hollywood films like “Antz, Cars, and Resident Evil,” three documentaries about Bin Laden himself, and some video games like “Zuma Deluxe” and “Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2.”

More bizarrely, as the collection shows, Osama was seemingly a fan of erotic video games too.

The CIA has also unveiled several PDF files about Illuminati conspiracy theories like the book “Bloodlines of the Illuminati.”

The following copyrighted videos include:

Batman Gotham Knight, BBC Great Wildlife Moments, Biography – Osama bin Laden, Cars, Chicken Little, CNN Presents: World’s Most Wanted, Final Fantasy VII, Heroes of Tomorrow, Home on the Range, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, In the Footsteps of bin Laden – CNN, National Geographic: Kung Fu Killers, National Geographic: Inside the Green Berets, National Geographic: Predators at War, National Geographic: World’s Worst Venom, Peru Civilization, Resident Evil, Storm Rider – Clash of the Evils, The Kremlin from Inside, The Story of India, The Three Musketeers and Where in the World is Osama bin Laden etc.

A peek into Osama bin Laden’s old files released by the US government:

In March 2016, the American government had released a second tranche of documents found during the 2011 that had killed Osama.

A total of 115 documents were released, including the Al-Qaeda leader's will. Having left a personal fortune of around $29million after his death, as a BBC report had revealed, Osama had urged his family to "obey my will" and to spend his inheritance on "jihad, for the sake of Allah."

The “BBC” had stated: “He referred to the money as being in Sudan, but it is not clear whether it was cash or assets. Bin Laden lived in Sudan for five years in the 1990s as a guest of the Sudanese government. He also ordered sums of money to be given to two men and various relatives. It is not known whether any of the money made its way to his heirs. Other writings showed Osama Bin Laden's fear of being electronically tracked.”

The British media house had maintained: “He thought his wife's tooth was being tracked. In a letter to one of his wives, who lived in Iran, the world's most wanted man revealed his fear that a dentist could have inserted an electronic tracking device in her tooth during a cavity operation. The letter ended with an instruction to destroy it. In another letter, Bin Laden fretted about moving money safely. He instructed operatives to discard suitcases carrying cash for fear that they could contain tracking chips and said money should be transported by vehicle, but only on cloudy days, suggesting he feared they could be targeted by drones.”

The documents recovered by the US Navy SEALs also showed Osama's battle to maintain control over the various Al-Qaeda franchises.

One of his letters had shed light on how his organization was planning a media blitz to mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and proposed working with certain media outlets to arrange coverage. 

The letter had read: "I say that the latest time we can stay with our present companion brothers is the tenth anniversary of the attack on New York and Washington, after a few months from now; or at the end of this year, 2011." 

Previous documents released had suggested that Bin Laden had been grooming his son to succeed him as al-Qaeda leader. 

Among the material found at Osama’s Abbottabad compound was a job application form for becoming a member of Al-Qaeda.

On page three, the form asked the following questions:

Have you ever been convicted by any court? Have you ever been in jail or prison?

The “BBC News” correspondent had commented: “In normal circumstances, the preferred - likely required - answer to those two questions is a big NO. I am going to guess that this form is really looking for a YES.  Points 1-3 are fairly unremarkable - please write clearly and answer truthfully - pretty much what you would expect to find were you applying for a clerk's job at the local water company You then fill in all the personal details - including name, date of birth, father's name, grandfather's name, profession etc etc. Amid the quite ordinary and prosaic questions like "What foreign languages do you speak?" "What education level have you attained?"

The books that were found in Osama’s bookshelf:

According to a May 20, 2015 BBC report, Osama Bin Laden was a fan of 9/11 conspiracy theories, according to a newly released list of English language books found in his Pakistan hideout.

The media house had viewed: “The list of English-language books - which were all digital copies rather than printed editions - reads like a university reading list, largely made up of serious texts on international relations, politics and law. A sizable collection of manuals for computer programs, printers and virus protection software paint a picture of the more banal side of life as the world's most wanted man. Bin Laden also owned books by famed Watergate scandal reporter Bob Woodward and US academic Noam Chomsky.”

The full list of English language books in Osama’s personal collection included:

The 2030 Spike by Colin Mason, A Brief Guide to Understanding Islam by IA Ibrahim, America's Strategic Blunders by Willard Matthias, America's "War on Terrorism" by Michel Chossudovsky, Al-Qaeda's Online Media Strategies: From Abu Reuter to Irhabi 007 by Hanna Rogan, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy by Greg Palast, The Best Enemy Money Can Buy by Anthony Sutton, Black Box Voting, Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century by Bev Harris, Bloodlines of the Illuminati by Fritz Springmeier, Bounding the Global War on Terror by Jeffrey Record, Checking Iran's Nuclear Ambitions by Henry Sokolski and Patrick Clawson, Christianity and Islam in Spain 756-1031 A.D. by CR Haines, Civil Democratic Islam: Partners, Resources, and Strategies by Cheryl Benard, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, Conspirators' Hierarchy: The Committee of 300 by John Coleman, Crossing the Rubicon by Michael Ruppert, Fortifying Pakistan: The Role of US Internal Security Assistance by Christine Fair and Peter Chalk, Guerrilla Air Defense: Antiaircraft Weapons and Techniques for Guerrilla Forces by James Crabtree, Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance by Noam Chomsky, Imperial Hubris by Michael Scheuer, In Pursuit of Allah's Pleasure by Asim Abdul Maajid, Esaam Ud-Deen and Naahah Ibrahim, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II by William Blum, Military Intelligence Blunders by John Hughes-Wilson, Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies by Noam Chomsky, New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11 by David Ray Griffin, New Political Religions, or Analysis of Modern Terrorism by Barry Cooper, Obama's Wars by Bob Woodward, Oxford History of Modern War by Charles Townsend, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy, Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower by William Blum, The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly Hall (1928), Secrets of the Federal Reserve by Eustace Mullins, The Taking of America 1-2-3 by Richard Sprague, Unfinished Business, U.S. Overseas Military Presence in the 21st Century by Michael O'Hanlon, The U.S. and Vietnam 1787-1941 by Robert Hopkins Miller, Arabic Calligraphy Workshop by Fayeq Oweiss and the Guinness Book of World Records Children's Edition 2008.

Osama Bin Laden's audio tape collection:

Numerous Western media outlets had reported in August 2015 that inside Osama’s Abbottabad compound, over 1,500 cassettes were waiting to be discovered.

The audio tape collection featured speeches given by Bin Laden in the late 1980s and early 1990s to audiences in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. 

There was also a recording of Afghan-Arab fighters - Arabs fighting in Afghanistan against the Soviet invasion force - having breakfast at a training camp in late 1980s. 

The audio collection also included hours of Islamic anthems - songs featuring dramatized battles, and musical messages for aspiring Mujahideen.