ODNI releases new cache of documents from “bin Laden’s bookshelf”

On March 1, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released newly declassified documents from Osama bin Laden’s “bookshelf.”

Osama bin Laden’s handwritten will left millions for jihad.  But even in the period shortly before his death, bin Laden placed the utmost importance on portraying his fraying organization as a united enterprise—while his lieutenants privately wrestled with their growing schism from al- Qa’ida in Iraq.  As the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approached, bin Laden envisioned a worldwide media campaign, suggesting his media team work with specific news outlets.

This emergent portrait of bin Laden comes together today via documents from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released in the second batch of media recovered during the 2011 raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, at the compound used to hide Osama bin Laden.  

Information about the declassification process, an overview of the documents’ content, and a link to the documents, is available here.

Source: ODNI