CIA Releases Files From Bin Laden Computer. It's Not What You Expect.

#1

A computer recovered from Osama bin Laden's compound in 2011 contained a vast video collection including children's cartoons and documentaries about himself.

#2

There was a video known as “Charlie bit my finger!” depicting a boy and his baby brother who bit his finger. There also were YouTube videos about crochet, including “How to Crochet a Flower.”

#3

Despite his hatred of the West, the 9/11 mastermind had episodes of Mr. Bean and Wallace and Gromit saved on his computer, as well as 30 videos of crocheting.

#4

There were three documentaries on the computer about bin Laden - one was called Where in the World is Osama bin Laden. His son's wedding video was also among the collection.

#5

Bin Laden’s video collection included “Antz,” a 1990s animated adventure comedy about an ant colony, “Chicken Little” and “The Three Musketeers.” Also in the collection were “Where in the World is Osama bin Laden” and several National Geographic programs: “Kung Fu Killers,” ‘’Inside the Green Berets” and “World’s Worst Venom.”

#6

The videos of Rowan Atkinson’s popular Mr. Bean were dubbed in the local Pashtu language. Bin Laden’s eclectic collection of entertainment became public after the CIA released 470,000 documents collected from the compound in Pakistan where he was killed.

#7

CIA director Mike Pompeo said: "Today's release of recovered al Qaeda letters, videos, audio files and other materials provides the opportunity for the American people to gain further insights into the plans and workings of this terrorist organization.

"CIA will continue to seek opportunities to share information with the American people consistent with our obligation to protect national security."

#8

The internet's already done a quick scroll, finding the following in bin Laden and his associates' files:

#9

There’s also possibly a Jackie Chan movie on the list. These file names are wedged in among hundreds of thousands of others, many of which are nonsense strings of code, but a few of which have English titles — “Jack_Hensley_beheaded.wmv” — that you’d probably be less surprised to find on the computers of a man who was once the most wanted terrorist in the world.

#10

The presence of so much children's content can be explained by the fact that bin Laden was living with his family in the secret compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where he was killed by US Navy Seal Team 6 in May 2011. Some of the videos in the files released by the CIA — like songs designed for children learning English — raise the possibility that bin Laden was schooling his children from the compound while he was in hiding.

#11

The CIA said the material gave an insight into the differences between al Qaeda and Islamic State. The documents were released by the CIA “in the interest of transparency and to enhance public understanding” of bin Laden and al Qaeda.

#12

There are still materials that have not yet been released. The CIA said this includes materials that are sensitive to national security; those protected by copyright; pornography; malware; and blank, corrupted and duplicate files.