NatGeo is Launching a Documentary on Osama Bin Laden’s Hard Drive!

Everything they found on his computers when he was killed.

Osama Bin Laden, the founder of the terrorist organization ‘Al-Qaeda,’ was killed in a military operation in 2011 at his camp in Abbottabad. Almost a decade after his death, Bin Laden’s Hard Drive, will take you on an in-depth journey of his life. The documentary will release as a National Geographic Special on September 10th, 2020.

 

 

The newly declassified hard drives taken from his compound in Abbottabad include 470,000 digital files – about 250 gigabytes of data. They also found over 100 USB drives, DVDs, and CDs.

New York Times Best-selling Author and CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen examined all these files. He decoded Laden’s terrorist organization’s secrets with the help of experts.

 

Exploring these hard drives, it’s clear that digital information can say a lot. Osama bin Laden’s files left behind an imprint of a complex man, responsible for the murder of thousands of people. History will remember him for that but, in order to cut through the perception of this ascetic in a cave on a holy crusade, it’s important for us to see how he crafted the videos that went out to his followers.

 

 

To read how his well-educated wives helped him write incendiary speeches. To watch as he inculcated his children and grandchildren into an ideology of hate leading to acts of violence against animals and the recitation of jihadist poetry. Understanding him is vital in order to combat other potential bin Ladens in the future.

 

The documentary was also made with the help of Abdullah Anas, who was a close friend to Bin Laden. Abdullah fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 80s. Bergen also spoke with Abdel Bari Atwan, the only reporter to spend 2 days with Bin Laden.

 

 

Osama Bin Laden was careful every time he communicated with the outside world. Not only did he opt for courier communication, but he was also very paranoid.

I was told that you went to a dentist in Iran, and you were concerned about a filling she had put in for you…The size of the chip is about the length of a grain of wheat, and the width of a fine piece of vermicelli.

He lived with over 20 people- including 3 wives, more than 12 children and grandchildren, as well as bodyguards and their families. Osama also did not allow for children to be left unsupervised. In addition to that, their family lived on livestock and vegetable gardens.

We bake our own bread and the milk is delivered to the house…the chicken and the eggs are produced in the house.

 

 

His letters also revealed that the 2 men left to safeguard Osama’s family were tired and wanted to leave. He relied on these men not only to guard his house but also to act as intermediaries between them and the outside world.

…they are getting exhausted, security-wise from me staying with them…I have tried so hard as God as my witness, to convince them to agree, but sadly I came to realize that they have reached a level of exhaustion that they are shutting down, and they asked to leave us all.

Bin Laden’s Hard Drive aims to provide a clearer picture of the mass murderer behind the famous 9/11 terrorist attack. It has been more than a year in the making.