Inside Bin Laden’s Files: GIFs, Memes, and Mr. Bean

By artappraiser on Thu, 11/02/2017 - 12:13am |

[....] On Wednesday, the Central Intelligence Agency released more than 470,000 files seized at Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad, Pakistan compound after the May 2011 raid that killed him. Hailed by researchers and international relations experts as a valuable gesture of transparency, the stash offers a window into the former Al-Qaeda leader's approach and plans, and insight into the terrorist group's global organizational structure, global network, and allies.

It also contains hallmarks of any person who uses the internet: copies of venerable film classics like Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Final Fantasy VII, episodes of Tom and Jerry, an IMAX version of Mysteries of Egypt, a download of the Charlie Bit My Finger viral YouTube video, a Mr. Bean episode, and 28 crocheting tutorials—including one for an "iPod Sock." [....]

The diary and other communications clearly indicate, though, that this was the general computing environment bin Laden worked in, and they demonstrate that he was still very active in leading Al-Qaeda even after some reports claim the group forced him to retire. The files also show that bin Laden and those close to him were interested in how Western media depicted him [....]

URL:

https://www.wired.com/story/osama-bin-laden-cia-files-gifs-memes/

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CIA Releases Nearly 470,000 Additional Files Recovered in May 2011 Raid on Usama Bin Ladin’s Compound

Press Release @ CIA.GOV, Nov. 1

LANGLEY, VA – The CIA today released to the public nearly 470,000 additional files recovered in the May 2011 raid on Usama Bin Ladin’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. CIA Director Mike Pompeo authorized the release in the interest of transparency and to enhance public understanding of al-Qa‘ida and its former leader. The files released today are available at: https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottabad-compound/ [....]

by artappraiser on Thu, 11/02/2017 - 12:15am

Bin Laden's disdain for the west grew in Shakespeare's birthplace, journal shows

CIA released journal as part of 470,000 documents collected from Bin Laden’s house, showing he visited the UK as a teenager and found it to be ‘decadent’

By Jason Burke & Kareem Shaheen @ TheGuardian.com, Nov. 2

A summer trip to the UK as a teenager and visits to Shakespeare’s birthplace convinced Osama bin Laden that the west was “decadent”, the late leader of al-Qaida and architect of the 9/11 attacks wrote in his personal journal shortly before he was killed by US special forces in 2011 [....]

An entry in the nondescript school notebook describes how Bin Laden first travelled to “the west” for an unspecified “treatment” when he was in “sixth grade” and 13 years old.

The following year the teenager, the wealthy son of a billionaire Saudi construction tycoon, spent 10 weeks in Britain “studying”. Bin Laden gives no further details, but he has previously been reported to have taken an English language course at Oxford.

In the journal, Bin Laden briefly describes visiting the home of William Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon but says he was “not impressed” by British society and culture during his time in the UK.

“I got the impression that they were a loose people, and my age didn’t allow me to form a complete picture of life there,” he wrote. “We went every Sunday to visit Shakespeare’s house. I was not impressed and I saw that they were a society different from ours and that they were a morally loose society [.....]

by artappraiser on Thu, 11/02/2017 - 1:49am

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