Osama bin Laden may have hidden encrypted messages in porn videos to secretly communicate with his Al-Qaeda associates before he was killed by Navy SEALs in 2011, a new documentary explores
Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden may have secretly communicated with his terrorist associates by hiding coded messages in porn videos, a new documentary series explores.
The new National Geographic special, Bin Laden’s Hard Drive, analyses the extensive digital and written materials recovered by Navy SEALs at the slain terrorist compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, when he was killed on May 2, 2011.
The 9/11 mastermind was found to be in the possession of a trove of adult movies and erotic images that was described by officials as a ‘fairly extensive’ collection of modern, electronically recorded video at the time.
And now, the new documentary presented by Peter Bergen - a CNN national security analyst who was the first Western journalist to interview bin Laden on TV – explores whether his sordid files were actually shrewd tools for communicating with acolytes.
Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden may have secretly communicated with his terrorist associates by hiding coded messages in porn videos
The new National Geographic special, Bin Laden’s Hard Drive, analyses the extensive porn collection recovered by Navy SEALs at the slain terrorist compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, when he was killed on May 2, 2011
According to his letters, bin Laden was fearful of using email as a means of issuing instructions to his terrorist subordinates, because the encryption on the messages could not be trusted. Much of his communication with the outside world was facilitated via couriers.
Bergen’s documentary, however, raises the idea that bin Laden may have been burying encrypted instructions in his porn files, as a devious means of avoiding detection by concealing murderous commands within the very kind of sinful content he reportedly despised.
However, forensic psychologist and CIA expert Reid Meloy suggests in the special that for all his claims of righteous piousness, bin Laden may have just been a normal man who occasionally wanted to indulge in acts of self-gratification – for ‘biology trumps ideology,’ as reported by the Daily Beast.
The mystery of the origins of the videos are also subject to much debate. Bin Laden didn’t have internet at his compound or a computer but he did have a number of TVs.
He also lived in the house with an estimated 22 others, so it’s unknown whether bin Laden was even responsible for stockpiling the tapes, or whether he even watched them in the first place.
Officials have also declined to divulge details of precisely what kinds of kinks the videos contain. In June 2017, the CIA said it would not release the files due to the 'nature of their contents'.
While the true nature of his possible X-rated pursuits may never be known, the discovery of the files does speak to the terrorist’s overarching hypocrisy, since watching porn clashed with his fundamentalist image.
The 9/11 mastermind was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 2, 2011, by U.S. Navy SEAL Team Six (the location of his compound is shown above
Bin Laden didn’t have internet at his compound or a computer but he did have a number of TVs (the bedroom where he used to sleep is pictured above)
Throughout the documentary, videos, media footage and conversations found on bin Laden’s hard drives paint him as a man of a two-faced nature.
Many feature experts and ex-comrades speak to bin Laden’s humility, describing him as a devout Muslim who allegedly spoke softly, loved and doted on his family and condemned arrogance among his followers.
However, as Bin Laden’s Hard Drive reveals, his computers also contained hundreds of news reports and documentaries about himself, as well as multiple takes of pre-recorded speeches in which he demanded perfection.
The program, in essence, reveals bin Laden – for all his projected modesty – to be a narcissist who obsessed over how he presented himself, and how he was received, to the extent of event of dying his beard to make himself appear more youthful.
Throughout the documentary, videos, media footage and conversations found on bin Laden’s hard drives paint him as a man of a two-faced nature
He also grew more paranoid the longer he lay in hiding from the outside world. In one missive to one of his four wives, he voiced fears she may have had a tracking device implanted into her tooth during a dentist appointment.
‘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 wrote.
The hour-long special points towards his more obvious contradictions, such as him feigning piety while simultaneous massacring thousands of people in the name of God.
Bin Laden would even apparently call up his TV’s channel guide whenever a female newscaster would appear on screen to complain, for he believed one should not gaze upon women, but then simultaneously relied on two of his wives to help him write and edit his videotaped sermons.
The infamous terrorist is also described in the special as a doting father, who reveled in nurturing his children and grandchildren for hope of a better world in the future. However, in a home movie purportedly shot by his grandson of a bird being shot and then callously kicked and prodded, he also raised them to be violent and rancorous.
Bin Laden further presented himself as a profit seeking to change the world for the better, while simultaneously masterminding attacks that ruined countless lives, spurred military conflicts and made the world less safe as a whole – including for him and his family.
The 9/11 mastermind was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 2, 2011, by U.S. Navy SEAL Team Six.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House in Washington, DC, May 1, 2011
Nearly 470,000 digital files, 250 gigabytes of data, more than 100 USB drives, DVDs and CDs, were discovered inside the compound along with five computers And multiple cell phones.
Also recovered was a number of books he was reading at the time of his death, along with letters he'd penned to family members.
The al Qaeda leader was obsessed with 9/11 conspiracy theories and U.S. military strategy along with dabbling in works about the Illuminati bloodlines and magic.
Works by left-wing liberals Noam Chomsky and Michael Scheuer were recovered from the bin Laden home along with the Oxford History of Modern War and Bloodlines of the Illuminati by Fritz Springmeier.
‘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,’ Bergen said.
‘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.’
