Inside Bin Ladin's Bookshelf

On May 20, 2015, the ODNI released a sizeable tranche of documents recovered during the raid on the compound used to hide Usama bin Ladin. The release, which followed a rigorous interagency review, aligns with the President’s call for increased transparency–consistent with national security prerogatives–and the 2014 Intelligence Authorization Act, which required the ODNI to conduct a review of the documents for release. The release contains two sections. The first is a list of non-classified, English-language material found in and around the compound. The second is a selection of now-declassified documents. The Intelligence Community will be reviewing hundreds more documents in the near future for possible declassification and release. An interagency taskforce under the auspices of the White House and with the agreement of the DNI is reviewing all documents which supported disseminated intelligence cables, as well as other relevant material found around the compound. All documents whose publication will not hurt ongoing operations against al-Qa‘ida or their affiliates will be released.

Now Declassified Material   (103 items)

Publicly Available U.S. Government Documents   (75 items)

English Language Books   (39 items)

Material Published by Violent Extremists & Terror Groups   (35 items)

Materials Regarding France   (19 items)

Media Articles   (33 items)

Other Religious Documents   (11 items)

Think Tank & Other Studies   (40 items)

Software & Technical Manuals   (30 items)

Other Miscellaneous Documents   (14 items)

Documents Probably Used by Other Compound Residents   (10 items)

This list contains U.S. person information that is being released in accordance with the Fiscal Year 2014 Intelligence Authorization Act (section 309) requirement that the Director of National Intelligence conduct a declassification review of certain items collected during the mission that killed Usama bin Ladin on May 1, 2011, and make publicly available any information declassified as a result of such review. All publications are unclassified and available commercially or in the public domain. The U.S. Intelligence Community does not endorse any of the publications on this list.