Prepare to be shocked by the bizarre revelations from the al-Qaeda founder's private files! Join us as we explore the strangest discoveries from declassified documents found in his Abbottabad compound. From his paranoid concerns about tracking devices to his surprising media consumption habits, these secrets reveal a different side to one of history's most notorious figures.
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00:00For the first time, the youngest wife of Osama bin Laden breaks her silence,
00:03revealing how the terrorist evaded the U.S. manhunt for nine and a half years.
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the most bizarre,
00:13most unbelievable discoveries made from declassifying the al-Qaeda founder's private files.
00:18Authorities in all 50 states are being warned that al-Qaeda had been planning to attack train lines.
00:23He plotted to assassinate Barack Obama.
00:26Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world
00:31that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden,
00:35the leader of al-Qaeda, and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands
00:41of innocent men, women, and children.
00:44A trove of letters discovered at bin Laden's Abbottabad hideout in Pakistan
00:48revealed the increasingly out-of-touch militant leader making desperate plans for his organization's future.
00:54One of the most ambitious was a half-formed plan to take the life of then-U.S. President Barack Obama.
01:00After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.
01:06For over two decades, bin Laden has been al-Qaeda's leader and symbol,
01:11and has continued to plot attacks against our country and our friends and allies.
01:16The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date
01:19in our nation's effort to defeat al-Qaeda.
01:22According to ABC News, a letter to a newly promoted al-Qaeda lieutenant in May 2010
01:28revealed that bin Laden intended to have Obama and General David Petraeus killed,
01:32but then Vice President Joe Biden spared.
01:35Said bin Laden in the letter,
01:37Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the U.S. into a crisis.
01:43He would have been very disappointed in the results of the 2020 election then.
01:46We can now project the winner of the presidential race.
01:53CNN projects Joseph R. Biden Jr. is elected the 46th president of the United States.
02:00He worried that his wife's tooth was being tracked.
02:03Yeah, this one might take a little bit of explaining.
02:05As part of a second batch of declassified letters released to the public,
02:09one particularly eyebrow-raising detail stood out.
02:12Writing to one of his wives who lived in Iran,
02:15an increasingly paranoid bin Laden expressed the following,
02:18That said, no evidence exists to suggest that bin Laden's wife was indeed
02:23being tracked by any kind of foreign intelligence agency.
02:27He was into conspiracy theories.
02:29Is Osama bin Laden dead or alive?
02:33You know, I can't say one hundred percent that Osama bin Laden is dead.
02:37But I can tell you that Osama bin Laden is alive.
02:40He's alive.
02:41He's alive.
02:42He's alive.
02:43He's alive.
02:44He's alive.
02:45He's alive.
02:46He's alive.
02:47You know, I can't say one hundred percent,
02:49but I can say there's no good evidence that he is still alive.
02:54And there's a lot of good evidence that he's dead.
02:57So I would say most likely dead.
03:00It seems only fitting that the man who orchestrated the 9-11 attacks
03:04was also consumed by them.
03:06As such, bin Laden's personal library was stocked full of books about 9-11 conspiracy theories.
03:13The third element of evidence is that there was a lot of evidence that he was a kidney patient,
03:21that he was in the final stages, in fact, of kidney failure.
03:26David Ray Griffin, author of The New Pearl Harbor,
03:30Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9-11,
03:33was amused when informed by The Guardian that his book had ended up in Osama's collection.
03:38Said Griffin,
03:39I'm disappointed that he only had one of my books.
03:42He should have read Pearl Harbor Revisited.
03:44Similar works in bin Laden's library included books by noted conspiracist Fritz Springmeier,
03:50Holocaust denier Eustace Mullins,
03:52and, curiously, Canadian mystic Manly Palmer Hall.
03:56We can't bring peace in the world if we can't have it in our own family.
04:00And how can we declare the ambitions are false
04:03when we can't stop using narcotics for our own pleasure?
04:07He had big plans for the 10th anniversary of his most famous moment.
04:11It did not take long at all.
04:13The documents from Osama bin Laden's compound have already given up a vital piece of information
04:19that al-Qaeda was plotting to strike America again this coming September on the 10th anniversary of 9-11,
04:26and the target trains.
04:28The tragic events of September 11, 2001,
04:31were the result of meticulous planning by bin Laden and his al-Qaeda co-conspirators.
04:37They changed the trajectory of American history forever
04:39and completely altered the country's perspective on matters of national security.
04:43According to declassified files found in Abbottabad,
04:46bin Laden had plans for a follow-up attack on U.S. soil intended for September 11, 2011.
04:53As one option, al-Qaeda was looking into trying to tip a train by tampering with the rails
04:58so that the train would fall off the track at either a valley or a bridge.
05:02You can't guard hundreds of miles of track,
05:04and if they can get to one location that's not well guarded
05:07and put explosives on it or do something to cause the train to derail,
05:13that's a lot easier than going after an aircraft.
05:16The dissident was obsessively plotting in the months and years before his killing.
05:20Said Bruce Riedel for nonpartisan think tank the Brookings Institution,
05:25quote, the intercepted communications focused on selecting operatives for an attack,
05:30but the target was apparently not clear in the information found in his hideout, end quote.
05:34One official tells ABC News the materials found at the bin Laden hideout
05:38include schematics and websites involving a variety of things al-Qaeda was considering.
05:43One official describes the documents as aspirational, but not indicative of final stage planning.
05:48He had four children and five houses while in hiding.
05:52The first time the youngest wife of Osama bin Laden breaks her silence,
05:56she explains how the terrorist evaded the U.S. manhunt for nine and a half years.
06:01Her story made public nearly one year after a team of Navy SEALs shot bin Laden and wounded her.
06:07You can't say that Osama bin Laden didn't keep busy during his time on the run from global intelligence agencies.
06:14Amal Ahmed Abdul Fattah, bin Laden's youngest wife at the time of his death,
06:19offered up a testimony that painted a picture of what his secluded life looked like
06:24in the years following the 9-11 attacks.
06:26Amal and the two other wives shared the crowded Abbottabad compound where bin Laden was ultimately found,
06:31a place where he spent his time watching satellite TV news
06:35and trying to keep peace among the wives and at least eight children and five grandchildren.
06:40I can only begin to imagine that that looked like American reality TV,
06:45that he was living some version of the Kardashians in Abbottabad.
06:48In those ten years, Fattah gave birth to four children.
06:52Said the New York Times,
06:54a separate document states that she gave fake identity papers to hospital staff.
06:59According to Peter Bergen's The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden,
07:04he followed the life of a devoted patrifamilias,
07:07taking a keen interest in the education of his offspring and presiding over family meetings.
07:13What does that suggest about his mindset during those years on the run?
07:18We have this notion that he was interested in preserving his legacy.
07:22We've got that famous video of him watching his old videos sitting there in the house in Abbottabad.
07:29He loved animated movies.
07:31I mean, I gotta believe there's some place out there that's better than this.
07:34Otherwise, I would just curl up in a larval position and weep.
07:37According to files released to the public by the Central Intelligence Agency,
07:41bin Laden found more than a few ways to keep busy while hiding out.
07:46One of these ways, it would seem, was absorbing large quantities of western media.
07:50Found on his computer were such classics of American animated cinema as
07:55Ants, Cars, Chicken Little, and more.
07:58Hey, what's wrong? Nothing. You sure? I thought I heard you yell.
08:01No.
08:03I, I, I, I fell out of bed.
08:06Perhaps even stranger, it wasn't just movies that were found among bin Laden's personal effects,
08:11but viral videos and other bits of ephemera, like the Charlie Bit My Finger video
08:15and several Tom and Jerry cartoons.
08:22His intricate communication system.
08:24First they got the nickname.
08:26Then they were able, about four years ago, to get the real name.
08:30And sometime after that, they got his cell phone number.
08:34So they started tracking the cell phone.
08:37But he would turn off the cell phone anytime he got anywhere near the compound.
08:43The Al-Qaeda mastermind's Abbottabad residence may have contained his family
08:47and all the cartoons he ever could have hoped to watch.
08:51But one crucial thing it didn't have was internet access.
08:54So how did he communicate with the outside world?
08:57Through an extremely well thought out system that minimized the risk of foreign interception.
09:01For some years, they were listening for this cell phone.
09:05And it never showed up in any place that would correlate with a compound.
09:09According to NBC News, bin Laden would type a message on his computer without an internet connection,
09:14then save it using a thumb-sized flash drive.
09:17He then passed the flash drive to a trusted courier who would head for a distant internet cafe.
09:22At that point, the courier would copy the contents of the message into an email and send it.
09:27The reverse would allow bin Laden to read messages sent back to him.
09:32They used this compound day after day until they could identify three families.
09:37The courier's family, his brother's family, and then there was this third family,
09:41which looked to be the same size as the family they thought bin Laden was living with.
09:47Another piece of circumstantial evidence.
09:50And there never was a smoking gun.
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10:07He had a fondness for, uh, adult films.
10:11From the time of the 2011 raid on bin Laden's Abbottabad compound,
10:15rumors persisted that a large quantity of adult films made up a significant chunk.
10:20These rumors were finally confirmed in 2015,
10:23when James Clapper, then Director of National Intelligence under President Obama,
10:27announced their existence.
10:29Anyone hoping for a lurid taste of bin Laden's, well, tastes,
10:33would be sorely disappointed.
10:35Said Clapper, quote,
10:37We are not going to release these materials due to the nature of their contents, end quote.
10:41While the specifics of bin Laden's collection will likely never see the light of day,
10:45a 2011 Reuters report noted that it was, quote,
10:49fairly extensive.
10:51Which declassified secret shocked you the most?
10:54Are there any we missed?
10:56Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
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