Bin Laden: YouTube-Watching, Mr. Bean-Loving Crocheter?

CIA releases 470K documents from house where Osama bin Laden was killed
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 1, 2017 6:26 PM CDT
CIA Releases Bin Laden's Personal Journal, Much More
The CIA released on Wednesday a massive trove of documents and files taken from the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011.   (AP Photo/Mazhar Ali Khan, File)

Osama bin Laden wasn't impressed with British society—“I got the impression that they were a loose people"—and no amount of visits to the birthplace of Shakespeare could change that. On Wednesday, the CIA released 470,000 documents from the house where bin Laden was killed in 2011 "in the interest of transparency," the Guardian reports. According to the Daily Dot, this is the fourth time the CIA has released such documents, but this time they include bin Laden's personal journal and computer files. The Washington Post reports the latter includes 79,000 image and audio files and more than 10,000 videos. The release is the first confirmation of reports bin Laden visited the west in his youth (courtesy of his journal) and also includes the first images of his son Hamza bin Laden as an adult (courtesy of a wedding video), according to CNN.

The release also includes some odd items. While bin Laden professed not to like Britain, he apparently enjoyed parts of its culture—his computer contained episodes of Mr. Bean and Wallace and Gromit, as well as more than 30 videos on crocheting. It also held various animated movies, such as Cars and Antz; National Geographic specials like Kung Fu Killers; and the documentary Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? A Gizmodo list of the 42 "weirdest" movies on bin Laden's computer is topped by the YouTube viral video "Charlie Bit My Finger" (but that was before they noticed bin Laden had a video claiming Sept. 11 was an inside job). And the Daily Dot was particularly intrigued by a 2-second audio file of Jennifer Lopez saying "I want to welcome you to JenniferLopez.com." It appears to be the only J.Lo-related file on the computer. (More Osama bin Laden stories.)

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