Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden may have communicated with terrorists by hiding encrypted messages in porn videos, a National Geographic documentary suggests.
The documentary titled Bin Laden’s Hard Drive takes a look at digital and written material recovered from his secret compound in Abbottabad after he was killed by the US in May 2011.
According to Metro News, the documentary featured CNN national security analyst Peter Bregen – the first western journalist to interview bin Laden on TV, exploring whether the 9/11 mastermind could have been using porn as a means of communicating with associates.
"According to his letters, bin Laden mainly used couriers to send messages to the outside world as he didn’t trust that encrypted emails would be enough to cover his tracks," the outlet reported.
Bergen said it could have been possible that bin Laden was using porn to relay messages to his subordinates.
However, forensic psychologist and CIA expert Reid Meloy says that despite his piousness, bin Laden may have simply wanted to watch porn for his own sexual gratification, as ‘biology trumps ideology’, the Daily Beast reports.
On May 2, 2011, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in a firefight with US forces in Pakistan ending a nearly 10-year worldwide hunt for the mastermind of the September 11 attacks.
Then US president Obama said US forces led a targeted operation that killed bin Laden in a compound in Abbottabad, north of Islamabad. No Americans were killed in the operation and they took care to avoid civilian casualties, he had said.
Bin Laden and three adult men, including a son of bin Laden were killed along with a woman who was used as a shield by a male combatant, officials had said.
The operation took under 40 minutes. A UU helicopter was lost due to a mechanical problem and its crew and assault force safely evacuated.
The operation was monitored in real-time by CIA Director Leon Panetta and other intelligence officials in a conference room at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, an official had told Reuters.
They finally identified the men’s residence in August 2010, and quickly realized the $1 million (599 thousand pounds), three-story property was far more than the home of two individuals with no discernible source of wealth.
Bin Laden had been the subject of a search since he eluded US soldiers and Afghan militia forces in a large-scale assault on the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan in 2001.
The trail quickly went cold after he disappeared and many intelligence officials believed he had been hiding in Pakistan.
Besides September 11, Washington has also linked bin Laden to a string of attacks — including the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the warship USS Cole in Yemen.
The documentary titled Bin Laden’s Hard Drive takes a look at digital and written material recovered from his secret compound in Abbottabad after he was killed by the US in May 2011.
According to Metro News, the documentary featured CNN national security analyst Peter Bregen – the first western journalist to interview bin Laden on TV, exploring whether the 9/11 mastermind could have been using porn as a means of communicating with associates.
"According to his letters, bin Laden mainly used couriers to send messages to the outside world as he didn’t trust that encrypted emails would be enough to cover his tracks," the outlet reported.
Bergen said it could have been possible that bin Laden was using porn to relay messages to his subordinates.
However, forensic psychologist and CIA expert Reid Meloy says that despite his piousness, bin Laden may have simply wanted to watch porn for his own sexual gratification, as ‘biology trumps ideology’, the Daily Beast reports.
Bin Laden killed in Pakistan:
On May 2, 2011, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in a firefight with US forces in Pakistan ending a nearly 10-year worldwide hunt for the mastermind of the September 11 attacks.
Then US president Obama said US forces led a targeted operation that killed bin Laden in a compound in Abbottabad, north of Islamabad. No Americans were killed in the operation and they took care to avoid civilian casualties, he had said.
Bin Laden and three adult men, including a son of bin Laden were killed along with a woman who was used as a shield by a male combatant, officials had said.
The operation took under 40 minutes. A UU helicopter was lost due to a mechanical problem and its crew and assault force safely evacuated.
The operation was monitored in real-time by CIA Director Leon Panetta and other intelligence officials in a conference room at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, an official had told Reuters.
Senior administration officials said they were finally led to bin Laden after more than four years tracking one of his trusted couriers, and the man’s brother, using intelligence obtained from detainees captured after September 11.
They finally identified the men’s residence in August 2010, and quickly realized the $1 million (599 thousand pounds), three-story property was far more than the home of two individuals with no discernible source of wealth.
Bin Laden had been the subject of a search since he eluded US soldiers and Afghan militia forces in a large-scale assault on the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan in 2001.
The trail quickly went cold after he disappeared and many intelligence officials believed he had been hiding in Pakistan.
While in hiding, bin Laden had taunted the West and advocated his militant Islamist views in videotapes spirited from his hideaway.
Besides September 11, Washington has also linked bin Laden to a string of attacks — including the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the warship USS Cole in Yemen.