What were the weird things found on Osama Bin Laden’s hard drive?

Alex Auclair
6 min readJan 25, 2023

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From The Infographics Show

Osama bin Laden will be acknowledged as one of the world’s most deadly and terrible individuals, but did you know he loved anime and cartoons? Read this bizarre new story to see what odd items were discovered on this psychopath’s hard drive! 🤔😱

  • Osama bin Laden was an evil man who committed evil deeds. That the CIA discovered terrible things when they examined the hard drive, they recovered from his compound should not be shocking. Some unexpected files were found when they looked more closely at what was on the hard drives. We now know that Osama bin Laden enjoyed playing video games, watching anime, and exploring some of the less savory parts of the internet. Be prepared; what you are about to see on this terrorist’s hard drive will horrify and shock you. Osama bin Laden’s home in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was invaded by Navy SEALs on May 2, 2011. Five terrorists, including Bin Laden and one of his sons, were slain during this valiant mission. After killing bin Laden, the Special Forces unit made sure to extract his body so that it could be dumped into the ocean later on. They did this by carefully moving through the compound.
  • To prevent fanatics from worshiping it, this was done. Several computers, flash drives, and hard drives that contained some pretty bizarre things were taken hostage by the SEAL team during this mission. In order to better inform the public about Al-Qaeda, the CIA made a significant portion of the hard drives’ contents public. What the average person didn’t expect, however, was the vast array of meme videos, crocheting instructions, and strange pornographic selections that were found on Osama bin Laden’s hard drives. Nevertheless, not all of the information was made public because some of it was used to track down additional terrorist leaders and some of it included graphic videos that were inappropriate for public consumption. From Osama Bin Laden’s hard drives, approximately 470,000 digital files totaling 250 gigabytes of data were recovered. Additionally, each file was more unexpected than the previous one.
  • Obviously, you would anticipate finding information about terrorism on a terrorist’s hard drive. The CIA did release something quite intriguing, despite the fact that they probably didn’t release the majority of the documentation pertaining to Al-Qaeda’s plans and activities. The hard drives contained several documents, including an Al-Qaeda recruitment form. This may seem strange because, when you think of recruitment forms, you probably think of businesses or non-profit organizations, but it would appear that Al-Qaeda required some kind of document to screen their recruits. The questions on Al-Qaeda’s equivalent, however, were specific to their line of work, unlike those on a conventional application. It’s unclear whether the answers to these questions qualified or disqualified a candidate from becoming a terrorist, but this is just one of the many documents that give us a glimpse into Al-Qaeda’s recruitment process and how the organization was run.
  • Questions like “do you wish to execute a suicide operation?” were included in the application, along with less direct questions like “what are your favorite hobbies or past times?” Videos and speeches by Osama bin Laden’s son, Hamza bin Laden, were among the other terrorist-related materials on the hard drives. Documentary material was saved on the hard drives for future reference because it was assumed that Hamza would take over the group after his father died or was no longer able to lead Al-Qaeda. In order to portray Hamza as a capable leader, Al-Qaeda also used these videos and pictures in its propaganda. The videos on the hard drive, though, seem to refute this impression. On one of the hard drives, there was an hour-long wedding video that seemed to have no real point and dragged on. Throughout the entire thing, Hamza can be seen with a thin mustache and appearing somewhat dissatisfied.
  • Images from the wedding were also used in the propaganda of some terrorist organizations, but the video was edited to show Hamza in a favorable light. Hamza’s identity and whereabouts may have been determined using some of the photos and videos on the hard drives. Hamza was killed in a U.S. military operation in 2019. Somewhere in Pakistan or Afghanistan, S. is conducting a counterterrorism operation. The hard drives also contained plans and preparations for the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001, as well as strategies for Al-Qaeda to take advantage of the Arab Spring uprisings. The data on Osama Bin Laden’s hard drives contained information that would have allowed the US to derail their plans. The most shocking things, though, weren’t the terrorist plots and speeches that were discovered on the hard drives. Osama bin Laden’s narcissistic tendencies are probably not shocking. This story is almost perfectly told on his hard drive.
  • Documentaries about himself were his favorite thing to watch. In fact, he had a ton of television programs on his hard drives, including World’s Most Wanted and In the Footsteps of Bin Laden from CNN. It’s conceivable that people downloaded these programs merely to stay up to date with what the U.S. media was aware of, but there was no reason to keep the files after they had been watched if that was the only purpose for which they were being used. It’s not difficult to picture Osama bin Laden enjoying himself while watching self-aware documentaries. This is a repulsive idea, but bin Laden was a repulsive individual. He also had recordings of Morgan Spurlock’s 2008 documentary where in the World is Osama bin Laden?
  • As a result, not all of the films, television programs, video games, and pornography might have belonged specifically to Osama bin Laden. Nevertheless, whichever way you choose to look at it, he most likely knew what was on the hard drives, and most likely most of it. He was amusing himself and keeping himself busy by watching the videos on the hard drives. At the compound, not everything was electronic. Osama also possessed a fascinating collection of books that provided additional insight into the workings of this maniac’s mind. I find it surprising. Several books on the U.S. government were owned by Osama bin Laden. The United States piqued his interest. Books like Bob Woodward’s Obama’s Wars have revealed diplomatic strategies. Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies by Noam Chomsky and The U. by Robert Hopkins Miller S., as well as Vietnam, 1787–1941.
  • Most likely, bin Laden used these readings to better comprehend his foe and devise fresh schemes to terrorize the world at large. But this raises the following issue: Why did Osama bin Laden have so much if he was so hostile to the west and the United States? Why weren’t the hard drives filled with movies, music, or other forms of media from these cultures? Are there movies, television shows, and video games from the Middle East itself or from elsewhere in the world? You have to wonder if Osama bin Laden used Western media to learn. Whether he had these items stored on his hard drives out of enjoyment or to better his enemies is unclear. Watching Charlie Bit My Finger or Chicken Little YouTube meme videos. Most likely, it isn’t. Trying to comprehend Osama bin Laden as a person is worth anyone’s time to access his inside mind would be like entering a nightmare full of absurdities and horrors.
  • Instead, we can acknowledge that he was among the worst people to ever exist liked crocheting and pixilated porn. Osama bin Laden, like many other evil people throughout history, had an odd side. He was clearly a narcissistic psychopath. Despite his dislike for American culture, he couldn’t help but engage in it. The bottom line is that a lot of the items you’d anticipate finding on a terrorist’s hard drive were present. On a terrorist’s hard drive, however, you would not expect to find a lot of other things. In any case, Osama bin Laden’s absence has made the world a better place. Thank you, SEAL Team Six.

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Alex Auclair
Alex Auclair

Written by Alex Auclair

One of the many brains behind the Infographics Show. As a writer, I craft compelling blogs and make it easy to understand for a wide range of audiences.

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