On Wednesday, the CIA released nearly 500,000 files recovered from the 2011 raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan hideout. According to the CIA’s web page, the files are “temporarily unavailable pending resolution of a technical issue.” From Wired:
Hailed by researchers and international relations experts as a valuable gesture of transparency, the stash offers a window into the former Al-Qaeda leader’s approach and plans, and insight into the terrorist group’s global organizational structure, global network, and allies.It also contains hallmarks of any person who uses the internet: copies of venerable film classics like Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Final Fantasy VII, episodes of Tom and Jerry, an IMAX version of Mysteries of Egypt, a download of the Charlie Bit My Finger viral YouTube video, a Mr. Bean episode, and 28 crocheting tutorials—including one for an “iPod Sock.”
“It’s like, ‘ooh Osama bin Laden is a Tom and Jerry fan!’ And maybe he is, it’s quite possible. I like Tom and Jerry, too,” says Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the editor of its Long War Journal, which got early access to the trove from the CIA. “But I suspect a lot of the sort of frivolous or the personal stuff was more for his family….”
Other gems include a lot of clip art, a video called “HORSE_DANCE,” numerous episodes of a Jackie Chan television show, image files of the Yahoo logo, a few “funny cat” videos, and an image of a cute stuffed animal monkey.
And yes, there was also porn.