Osama bin Laden files: A word cloud of al-Qaeda leader’s released documents

Published June 1st, 2015 - 07:42 GMT
Nothing may be more telling of a man's thoughts than the words he wrote (and the number of times he said them). (AFP/File)
Nothing may be more telling of a man's thoughts than the words he wrote (and the number of times he said them). (AFP/File)

It's been four years since al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed by the US military in Pakistan. For more than a decade the extremist was on FBI's "most wanted" list for his planned attacks against the US.

So when documents found in the fugitive's compound were declassified and released to the public late May, one question we really wanted to answer was: What went on in bin Laden's mind during his isolated years in the hideout?

Many of these documents were letters sent to family, friends and militant comrades. Others were transcripts of his videos or other private aspects of his life. Nothing may be more telling than the words the man spoke or wrote out — so here is a word cloud of the 100 documents now in the public domain. 

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