# Bin Laden Files
Bin Laden Files refers to the 470,000 documents the CIA released on November 1, 2017, seized from Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound during the 2011 raid. The trove went viral when internet users combed past the al-Qaeda planning material and found Final Fantasy VII, Charlie Bit My Finger, an episode of Mr. Bean, and 28 crocheting tutorials on the compound's computer.
## Overview
Bin Laden Files refers to the 470,000 declassified documents the CIA published on November 1, 2017, recovered from Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan during the May 2011 raid that killed him[1]. Researchers went in expecting al-Qaeda planning material and bin Laden's personal journal. What Twitter latched onto instead was the compound computer's stash of Final Fantasy VII, an episode of Mr. Bean, a downloaded copy of the viral Charlie Bit My Finger video, episodes of Tom and Jerry, an IMAX version of Mysteries of Egypt, and 28 crocheting tutorials including one for an iPod sock[1].
The joke stuck because it flattened the world's most wanted terrorist into a normal person with a cluttered hard drive. Headlines pivoted within hours of the release, with Wired[1], Al Jazeera[4], TIME, and The Guardian[3] cataloguing the pop culture finds alongside the political ones. Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal, which got early access to the trove, told Wired he suspected the frivolous files were mostly for bin Laden's family rather than the man himself[1].
The CIA also flagged what it was withholding, which somehow made the story funnier. The agency said the copyrighted material it did not release included the family films Cars, Chicken Little, and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, plus the documentaries Where in the World is Osama bin Laden and CNN Presents: World's Most Wanted[2].
## How It Spread
Political outlets ran the substantive angle. CNN led with the journal, the Hamza bin Laden images, and the Iran material[2]. Wired's November 1 story went the other direction, opening with the observation that any laptop tends to house old photos, memes, home videos, pirated software, and porn, and treating the compound's computer as one more version of that[1]. That framing set the tone for the meme.
Twitter drove the individual discoveries. User @KenXyro flagged a copy of the first episode of the hentai series Bible Black on the compound's machine[5]. Journalist Ashley Feinberg, then at Gizmodo, surfaced files showing someone at the compound had been keeping up with Illuminati conspiracy theories[5]. Each fresh find got its own thread, and coverage from Al Jazeera, TIME, and The Guardian rolled through the week[5]. Wired specifically flagged that it was impossible to know how much of the trivial content was of interest to bin Laden versus other residents at the compound[1].
Beyond the pop culture jokes, the journal itself produced real news. The Guardian reported that an entry in a plain school notebook described bin Laden traveling to 'the west' at age 13 for unspecified medical treatment and returning the following year to spend 10 weeks studying in Britain, reportedly on an English course at Oxford[3]. He wrote about visiting Shakespeare's home in Stratford-upon-Avon every Sunday and came away unimpressed, calling the British 'a morally loose society'[3]. Al Jazeera dug into his commentary on the Arab Spring, noting that bin Laden hoped Libya's rebels would beat Muammar Gaddafi and worried Yemen was moving too fast toward revolution, writing that Yemen needed 'at least six months more to raise the awareness of the public'[4].
## How to Use
Bin Laden Files is more a running reference than a strict template. The common shorthand is to point at something absurdly mundane found among the files, Final Fantasy VII, Mr. Bean, crocheting tutorials, and use it as a punchline about the gap between a person's public image and their actual hard drive[1]. The bit still gets pulled out whenever a similar cache surfaces, usually in the form of 'imagine what's on my compound computer' style jokes.
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Bin Laden Files?
It refers to the 470,000 documents the CIA released on November 1, 2017 from Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound, which became a meme when internet users found the trove included Final Fantasy VII, Mr. Bean, Charlie Bit My Finger, and 28 crocheting tutorials[1].
### Where did Bin Laden Files come from?
The files were seized during the May 2011 US Navy SEAL raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and released by the CIA in November 2017 under a 2014 intelligence appropriations bill[2].
### What does Bin Laden Files mean?
As a meme, it refers to the surreal gap between al-Qaeda's leader and the pop culture, viral videos, and hobby tutorials that showed up on his compound's computer[1].
### How do you use Bin Laden Files?
It gets used as a shorthand joke about a person's hidden mundane digital life, often referencing specific finds like Final Fantasy VII or Charlie Bit My Finger as punchlines[1].
### Is Bin Laden Files still popular?
It sits as a well-known 2017 internet moment that still gets referenced when other digital caches are made public, though the peak of the discussion was the first week of November 2017[5].
### What pop culture was found on bin Laden's computer?
Reported finds included Final Fantasy VII, episodes of Tom and Jerry, an episode of Mr. Bean, an IMAX version of Mysteries of Egypt, the Charlie Bit My Finger viral video, and 28 crocheting tutorials[1].
### What copyrighted material did the CIA withhold?
The CIA said it held back films like Cars, Chicken Little, and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, plus the documentaries Where in the World is Osama bin Laden and CNN Presents: World's Most Wanted[2].
### Did bin Laden actually watch this stuff?
It is unclear. Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal told Wired that a lot of the trivial and personal material was probably for bin Laden's family rather than the al-Qaeda leader himself[1].
### What was in bin Laden's personal journal?
The journal covered the 2011 Arab Spring in detail and included a passage about visiting the UK as a 13-year-old and returning to spend 10 weeks studying in Britain, where he found the culture 'morally loose'[3].
### What did bin Laden write about the Arab Spring?
According to Al Jazeera's read of the diary, he hoped Libyan rebels would beat Gaddafi and cautioned that Yemen was moving too fast toward revolution and needed at least six more months to raise public awareness[4].
### Who found the weirdest files?
Twitter user @KenXyro flagged the presence of the hentai series Bible Black, and journalist Ashley Feinberg surfaced Illuminati conspiracy material found at the compound[5].
## References
1. [https://www.wired.com/story/osama-bin-laden-cia-files-gifs-memes/]()
2. [https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/01/politics/cia-osama-bin-laden-release/index.html]()
3. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/01/newly-released-journal-confirms-osama-bin-laden-visited-the-west]()
4. [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/cia-documents-osama-bin-laden-strategic-thinker-171114190513190.html]()
5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/bin-laden-files]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/bin-laden-files
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