A handwritten will by Osama bin Laden said he had a fortune of “about 29 million dollars” and that most of it should be spent “on Jihad”, according to documents released by the us government on Tuesday.
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Yet the documents show that bin Laden, despite being an effective prisoner in his own home, still saw himself as a terrorist mastermind, urging new and grandiose attacks on a West that he thought was close to collapse.
The bin Laden materials reveal the constant tension between his desire to micromanage the group’s day-to-day operations and his fears that he might be detected by sending directives to al-Qaida operatives scattered across many countries. But he included a caveat, “I really want for you to be my wife in paradise, and the woman, if she marries two men, is given a choice on Judgment Day to be with one of them”.
The review is ongoing, with the next release expected later this year.
“The size of the chip is about the length of a grain of wheat and the width of a fine piece of vermicelli”, he said.
Al-Qaeda of Iraq formally broke with the parent group in 2014, when it renamed itself the Islamic State.
This May 2, 2011, file photo shows Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, shortly after the USA raid in which the al-Qaida leader was killed.
His will, which is not dated and was translated by USA intelligence analysts, underscores his apparent hope that al-Qaida would carry forward with the mission he set long after his demise. In an undated letter where he wrote about the upcoming 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, he sought something of a media blitz to highlight his belief that the attacks were the precursor to the global financial crisis of the late 2000s. The will did not disclose much detail about where he amassed his wealth, but bin Laden’s father ran a successful construction company in Saudi Arabia for years, and the will noted that $12 million was from his brother on behalf of the Bin Laden Co. “I was told that you went to a dentist in Iran, and you were concerned about a filling she put in for you”.
“We asked several times that they be let go so that they could go to Pakistan”.
In another letter regarding negotiations to releasing an Afghan prisoner, bin Laden was also anxious about American surveillance and tracking devices.
A DNI spokesman said that it is “important that the documents collected at bin Laden’s compound be made available to the public”.
In a letter to his father dated August 8, 2008 bin Laden wrote that he was anxious about being assassinated.
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In the 4-page letter, bin Laden writes, “The way for change and freeing yourselves from the pressure of lobbyists is not through the Republican or the Democratic parties, but through undertaking a great revolution for freedom …It does not only include improvement of your economic situation and ensure your security, but more importantly, helps him in making a rational decision to save humanity from the harmful [greenhouse] gases that threaten its destiny”.
