CIA releases documents confiscated in bin Laden raid

The CIA has released a treasure trove of nearly a half million documents scooped up in the 2011 U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, including the al-Qaeda leader’s personal journal, home movies and a rare video of the wedding of his son and selfstyled avenger, Hamza bin Laden.

The materials, recovered by Navy SEALs at the bin Laden hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, include audio files, documents, images, videos and software operating system files. They are posted in the original Arabic in as close to the original form as possible, modified only so the files cannot be edited, according to the CIA.

The 470,000 documents released Wednesday include information on the group’s preparations in 2011 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, efforts to exploit the “Arab Awakening” in the Middle East to promote global jihad, bin Laden’s efforts to maintain unity within the group despite disagreements over tactics and doctrine and attempts to rehabilitate the organization’s “tarnished image” about Muslims.

The hour-long wedding video showing Hamza sitting on a carpet with other men, appears to be the first publicly available images of him as a young man, although the date of the wedding is unclear. He is shown sporting a trimmed mustache but no beard.

The 28-year-old Hamza, who has become a leading voice within the disparate al-Qaeda organization, has vowed vengeance for his father’s death. He was classified by the U.S. State Department in January as Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

The CIA said the materials offer insight into the al-Qaeda organization at the time of the raid six years ago and the “origins of fissures that exist today between al-Qaeda and ISIS.”

It was the fourth trove of files recovered during the raid to be released.