19. How The Modern Era’s Greatest Terrorist Leader Liked to Entertain Himself
Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda’s founder and the twenty-first century’s most notorious villain (to date), hardly needs an introduction, as he is probably history’s best-known terrorist. The terror attacks masterminded and carried out by his organization, particularly those of September 11th, 2001, have seared bin Laden’s name in global, and especially American, memories. Less known, however, is how bin Laden liked to pass his free time when he was not running a virtual terror state.
Apparently, he did not spend all his time issuing fatwas against Jews, infidels, and backsliding Muslims, or waging Jihad against opponents of his ‘Make Islam Great Again!‘ vision. In November 2017, the CIA released over 470,000 files seized from his compound following the 2011 raid that killed him. The contents included about 174 gigabytes of video, 7.4 gigabytes of image files, and 18 gigabytes of assorted documents. As it turned out, bin Laden had some hobbies and interests that stood in jarring contrast to what had hitherto been known about his persona.