The last years of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s life were consumed by fears that he was being spied upon and pursued by American forces. Bin Laden’s state of mind is revealed in thousands of pages of documents and other materials seized by Navy SEALs in the raid on Bin Laden’s Pakistani hideout in May 2011, a fraction of which were declassified on Tuesday.
In one letter, Bin Laden warns that a suitcase used to deliver a ransom could contain a tracking device and cautions that people presenting themselves as friends were not to be trusted. Another letter, apparently not written by Bin Laden, described a Qatari diplomat visiting al Qaeda members in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and bringing gifts including a “huge” watch.
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After the guest left, a militant identified as ‘Abu Umamah’ “smashed it with a hammer.”
In one document, Bin Laden himself is caught wondering whether an Iranian dentist may have planted a tracking device in his wife’s tooth.
“The size of the chip is about the length of a grain of wheat and the width of a fine piece of vermicelli,” he wrote, using his nom de guerre Abu Abdallah.
A few paragraphs later, Bin Laden signed off adding, “Please destroy this letter after reading it.”