Bin Laden’s Secret Life in a Diminished, Dark World

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The world’s most-wanted terrorist lived his last five years imprisoned behind the barbed wire and high walls of his home in Abbottabad, his days consumed by dark arts and domesticity.

American officials believe that Osama bin Laden spent many hours on the computer, relying on couriers to bring him thumb drives packed with information from the outside world.

Videos seized from Bin Laden’s compound and released by the Obama administration on Saturday show him wrapped in an old blanket watching himself on TV, like an aging actor imagining a comeback. A senior intelligence official said other videos show him practicing and flubbing his lines in front of a camera.. He was interested enough in his image, the official said, to dye his white beard black for the recordings.

His once-large entourage of Arab bodyguards was down to one trusted Pakistani courier and the courier’s brother, who also had the job of buying goats, sheep and Coca-Cola for the household.While his physical world had shrunk to two indoor rooms and daily pacing in his courtyard, bin Laden was still revered at home — by his three wives, by his children and by the tight, interconnected circle of loyalists in the compound.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/world/asia/08binladen.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

[cosmicone]

1. From the article --

"A Bin Laden son, Khalid, who lived in the home and was also killed, was married to a sister of either the courier or his brother, Pakistani officials said. "

hahahahaha

[wake.up.america]

3. Great !!!

[Arctic Dave]

4. I don't get your post?

What is funny about the marriage?

[cosmicone]

9. "was married to a sister of either the courier or his brother"

If she is a sister of one brother, isn't she automatically a sister of his brother?

[EFerrari]

10. The two couriers were brothers and no relation to bin Laden. n/t

[cosmicone]

11. sheeeeshj

I didn't mention bin Laden .... the statement is hilarious because it says C was married to a sister of A or his brother B. If C is a sister of A, doesn't she automatically become a sister of all of A's brothers including B?

[Leftist Agitator]

5. Yeah, it's hilarious that a son who loved his father got killed!

What a knee slapper!

:eyes:

He didn't choose to be the son of that murderous fuckhead.

[MineralMan]

2. Few extremists are friendly sorts. Most appear to be

iconoclasts and perhaps even bent a little farther than that. I would expect nothing different. It's sort of par for the course, really.

[pscot]

6. The Unabomber

[FLPanhandle]

7. A life in hiding can't be any fun

Not that extremists have fun anyway.

[TomCADem]

8. Interesting Article - Using Thumb Drives To Bring In News...

...explains why they had no phone service. The video tapes of Bin Ladin's rehearsals of his messages to Al Queda shows a person committed to pursuing his an unholy mission to create chaos. Yet, you have to wonder, what did he imagine was the end game?