When Osama bin Laden was killed by Navy Seals in his secret compound in Pakistan, a huge quantity of documents were seized during the raid. Recently these documents were released by the Director of National Intelligence and among them was bin Laden’s will. The testament, a copy of which can be found here, was created sometime in the 90’s when he was still a relatively minor player in the global jihadist movement and before the 9/11 attacks. In it, he claimed to have $29 million in a Sudanese bank and that he wanted the vast majority of the money to be used to fund the jihadist movement although he did leave small bequest to various family members. In a letter from 2008 he also added that he wanted money given to charities in his name if he were to die. This treasure trove of documents has given a fascinating glimpse into the private life of one of the most notorious terrorist in history and will, perhaps, reveal what pushed him to advance his cause in such a brutal manner.
See Jamie Crawford & Ryan Browne, Osama bin Laden’s will, personal letters made public, CNN Politics, March 1, 2016.
Special thanks to Kathryn Crocker & Rob Robertson for bringing this article to my attention.
