We’ve been privy to information regarding Osama Bin Laden, the mass-murdering leader of al-Qaeda, ever since the CIA released a whole cache of data that revealed the man’s letters, software manuals and conspiracy books back in 2015. But we’ve never had much insight into the terrorists’ personal lives, until now.
The CIA has given us a deep look, having just dropped a massive trove of almost 470,000 computer files onto the web, all of which were found in Bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound. It’s honestly one of the most weirdly shocking lists I’ve seen. For one, apparently, terrorists have a penchant for crocheting, as well as watching the viral Charlie bit my finger video, and um… playing old erotic video games.
The archive of data is home to hundreds of gigabytes of information that’s both frightening and downright bizarre. The internet is intrigued — so intrigued, in fact, that the CIA website which hosts the data has been brought to its knees, and now just blinks open with: “The Abbottabad files are temporarily unavailable pending resolution of a technical issue. We are working to make the material available again as soon as possible.”
Whilst the site is down, however, we’ve already glimpsed some of the things that Bin Laden’s computers held on them. As well as viewing crochet lessons, the residents at the compound also apparently liked to kick back and play some Final Fantasy VII and watch Resident Evil. They also found a bunch of animated films like Cars, Chicken Little, Ants, Ice Age and Dawn of the Dinosaurs, to mention a few. When not masterminding acts of terror upon the west, they enjoyed David Attenborough’s Best Wildlife Moments.
The CIA kindly eradicated the malware and pornography on the computer but left in pretty much everything else, even the operating system files. Enough for people to spot a fan of Counter Strike.
Other media content revealed that apparently, Bin Laden was a 9/11 truther. The computer contained the conspiracy documentary Loose Change, which suggests that the US government were the ones responsible for the 11 September attacks. He also displayed certain narcissistic tendencies, watching documentaries about himself such as the 2008 documentary Where in the world is Osama Bin Laden?
You’ll be able to view the archive here when the site comes back online.
Image: Wikimedia
Disclaimer: Some pages on this site may include an affiliate link. This does not effect our editorial in any way.
