A trove of documents the U.S. Navy SEALs took from the Pakistan compound where they killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 was published Thursday morning on the website of the Combating Terrorism Center.
The papers paint a picture of a terror mastermind who had grown increasingly worried he could not get control of the many al Qaeda affiliates that had sprung up across the globe. Yet bin Laden, the papers reveal, still had grand ambitions for al Qaeda, and he wanted to see another major terror attack in the United States.
The documents also reveal bin Laden as a man of vain impulses -- such as dying his hair. They show him joking about having multiple wives yet being concerned for one of them, and especially worried about his children's safety. He seemed to appreciate that he was enemy No. 1 in the West.