--- title: 'Bin Laden's Bookshelf' Reveals His Life Before Death | TIME description: The U.S. government has declassified hundreds of items that were found within Osama Bin Laden's compound when it was raided in 2011. canonical: https://time.com/video/pNV8iao3/ og:title: 'Bin Laden's Bookshelf' Reveals His Life Before Death og:description: The U.S. government has declassified hundreds of items that were found within Osama Bin Laden's compound when it was raided in 2011. og:url: https://time.com/video/pNV8iao3/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/pNV8iao3/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Bin Laden's Bookshelf' Reveals His Life Before Death twitter:description: The U.S. government has declassified hundreds of items that were found within Osama Bin Laden's compound when it was raided in 2011. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/pNV8iao3/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # 'Bin Laden's Bookshelf' Reveals His Life Before Death > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 'Bin Laden's Bookshelf' Reveals His Life Before Death [Watch (HLS stream): 'Bin Laden's Bookshelf' Reveals His Life Before Death](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pNV8iao3.m3u8) (1:41)  _Published 2015-05-21. The U.S. government has declassified hundreds of items that were found within Osama Bin Laden's compound when it was raided in 2011._ --- Jul 27, 2023 6:17 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [U.S. Offers $1 Million Reward in Hunt for Osama bin Laden's Son](/video/Fi31CLVa/) ### U.S. Offers $1 Million Reward in Hunt for Osama bin Laden's Son [Anatomy of a Raid: Osama bin Laden's Final Moments](/video/A8p4cZgq/) ### Anatomy of a Raid: Osama bin Laden's Final Moments [Inside the Raid to Kill Osama bin Laden](/video/7wgyaJlk/) ### Inside the Raid to Kill Osama bin Laden --- ## Transcript [ FOREIGN ] On Wednesday the U. S. Government declassified more than 400 items found in Osama Bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan. Letters, books, news articles and manuals have all been listed in what U. S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence is calling. Bin Laden 's bookshelf. So what does one find on the metaphorical bookshelf of one of the most notorious men of our time? Well, aside from the odd mention of old Adobe software manuals and, strangely enough, a copy of the War More video game Delta Force Extreme Two, the declassified documents give an interesting look into the former Alcidae leaders life, leading up to his death in 2011. One letter is a loving message addressed to his wife, children and father Another translated letter is directed to all Muslims in response to one of President George W. Bush's, or in his words, Crusader Bush's State of the Union addresses. There's even a copy of what you would call a terrorist application. Application, which asks potential al- Qaeda members about their previous jihad experience, and contact information in case a person is, quote, martyred. Other than the letters, the most interesting finding is a list of the books thought to have belonged to Bin Laden, or his actual bookshelf. Among the 39 English- language books listed, Bin Laden had Noam Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival. America's quest for global dominance, which former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was a fan of, and Bob Woodward's Obama's War. A writer for the Washington Post compares it to the equivalent of an Internet conspiracy theorist's browser history. Other takes from the release range from making bin Laden out to be obsessed with conspiracies to a man who was focused on the US to the end. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"'Bin Laden's Bookshelf' Reveals His Life Before Death","description":"The U.S. government has declassified hundreds of items that were found within Osama Bin Laden's compound when it was raided in 2011.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/pNV8iao3/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-05-21T02:23:03.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pNV8iao3.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/pNV8iao3/","duration":"PT1M41S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/pNV8iao3/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```