Buzz
When you go around branding the United States as the 'Great Satan' and aiming to dismantle it through a holy jihad, you're setting some incredibly high expectations. A whole persona comes with being an evil, deranged terrorist, and you’ve got to maintain that image.
Osama bin Laden worked hard to maintain his image as a devout, fundamentalist Muslim whose sole vice was killing thousands of innocent lives, but behind the scenes, he wasn’t as distant from Western culture as he liked to let on. When Navy SEALs raided his compound and ended his life, they had a look at his computer. As it turns out, the content bin Laden spent his final years watching on his laptop wasn’t exactly in line with Sharia.
10. Osama Bin Laden Was Into Dank Memes
Osama bin Laden’s computer contained 174 gigabytes of videos. He spent nearly a decade in hiding and had to pass the time somehow. Without Internet access at his compound, he’d rely on a courier to download material from YouTube and deliver it to him via flash drive—and, as it turns out, bin Laden was watching pretty much the same kind of content we do.
'Charlie Bit My Finger' was stored on his computer, meaning that while he was evading the CIA, the world’s most wanted terrorist was laughing at a video of a British toddler chomping on his brother’s finger. He also had a collection of LOLCats memes and a variety of clip art, presumably for creating a flyer for an Al-Qaeda bake sale.
Bin Laden had a penchant for some strange videos. His collection included clips of girls fighting, horses performing dances, and one particularly odd video titled 'Tootin’ Baththub Baby Cousins.' This last one featured two cartoon babies tooting in a bathtub while singing, 'When you feed us beans, there’s trouble!' and 'Don’t push too hard, you might go number two!.'
In addition to the weird stuff, bin Laden spent a lot of time watching crocheting tutorials. He had 28 instructional videos on the art of crochet. Reportedly, he even crocheted a sock for his iPod.
9. He Was Into Disney Films and Japanese Anime
Osama bin Laden had an assortment of Hollywood cartoons stored on his computer. Most of them were Disney films like Cars and Chicken Little, but he wasn’t strictly a Disney fan. Bin Laden also had copies of Ice Age, Ants, Tom and Jerry, and even some episodes of the classic kids’ show Jackie Chan Adventures.
But it wasn’t just blockbusters he was after. In fact, bin Laden was a regular on an Arabic-language anime forum called Msoms-animes.net. There, he downloaded fan translations of Japanese anime, as well as a large collection of episodes and video games for titles like Naruto, Bleach, Dragon Ball Z, and Detective Conan, a cartoon about a boy detective who solves mysteries.
Anime adaptations of video games appeared to be his favorite. Osama bin Laden had a copy of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and a direct-to-DVD anime version of Street Fighter IV in his collection.
The CIA has yet to comment on whether bin Laden owned one of those oversized pillows with a picture of an anime girl on it, but we're going to venture a guess and say the answer is probably 'yes.'
8. He Was a Volleyball Pro
When they weren’t scheming to bring destruction to the Western world, members of Al-Qaeda passed the time by playing volleyball. According to reports, bin Laden was quite the formidable opponent.
'He had his own unique serve, like a Russian grenade launcher,' one of bin Laden’s associates recalled. 'First, the ball would go up in the air, and then it would start to spin. When it came down, it was nearly impossible to return.'
Bin Laden’s volleyball skills were so remarkable that Al-Qaeda had to institute a rule separating him and Mohammad Atef, the other volleyball star on the Al-Qaeda team, every time they played, because it wasn’t fair for them to be on the same team. Al-Qaeda played a lot of volleyball. Reportedly, bin Laden made sure to fit a game in every day, typically during the afternoon lull, when the routine of chanting 'Death to America' and crafting IEDs began to take its toll.
7. He Wore a Cowboy Hat
While in hiding, Osama bin Laden would stroll through Pakistan wearing a cowboy hat in an effort to avoid being recognized.
Somehow, this ruse worked. About a year after 9/11, bin Laden was pulled over for speeding but managed to avoid trouble. The officer reportedly locked eyes with the world’s most wanted man and, thinking 'This guy looks just like Osama bin Laden, if only he didn’t have a cowboy hat on,' decided to let him off the hook. His Clark Kent-like disguise had triumphed.
The cowboy hat wasn’t just for disguise. Osama bin Laden had dreamed of being a cowboy since childhood. As a young boy, he would spend his time watching Bonanza and Fury on television. Afterward, he’d head to his father’s ranch, ride horses, and imagine himself as a real-life Western cowboy.
He eventually let go of his cowboy dreams as he grew older—but it’s notable that in his later years, he chose to wear a cowboy hat as his disguise. Perhaps deep down, bin Laden was still that boy envisioning himself as an outlaw, evading capture on a vast frontier.
6. He Was Fascinated by American Newscasters
One of the rare photos of Osama bin Laden in hiding shows him sitting cross-legged on the floor, watching American news on a small TV. According to his journals and letters, this became one of his favorite pastimes—and he was getting particularly invested in it.
Bin Laden was livid when MSNBC let go of Keith Olbermann, who, it seems, was his favorite newscaster. He wrote to a friend, 'I once thought MSNBC was a good, somewhat neutral channel, but recently they’ve fired two of the most famous journalists—Keith Olbermann and Octavia Nasser, the Lebanese.'
Bin Laden had some oddly strong opinions. He criticized most American networks for simply copying articles from Reuters. But his harshest words were reserved for Fox News. He complained to his friends that it 'lacks neutrality' and would 'die in anger.'
5. He Enjoyed Watching Movies About Himself
What bin Laden loved watching the most were videos about himself. His computer was filled with a collection of news reports detailing his role in the September 11th attacks, along with a series of biographies and documentaries tracking the efforts to capture him.
Osama bin Laden took his TV appearances quite seriously. Even though his hair was turning gray, he made sure to dye it black before filming his threatening videos, always wanting to look his best for his audience.
One of the strangest things about bin Laden is that he owned a copy of Loose Change, the infamous 9/11 Truther documentary that argues the World Trade Center attacks were an inside job. The most plausible explanation is that he found it entertaining that Americans were blaming their own government for the attacks he orchestrated. However, if you want to fuel a conspiracy theory, calling him a '9/11 Truther' could certainly add to the drama.
4. He Was a Devoted Arsenal Supporter
In the 1990s, Osama bin Laden spent time in Highbury, England, and became a passionate supporter of the Arsenal football team. He was so invested in the team that he bought tickets for almost every match during the 1993–1994 season, and even bought his son an Arsenal jersey with Ian Wright’s name on it.
Bin Laden’s love for football didn't stop in England. He continued his passion in Afghanistan, where he was known to play football after mosque. According to his bodyguard, Nasser al-Bahir, bin Laden played center forward and was particularly skilled at volleying the ball.
Arsenal fans were well aware of Osama bin Laden’s allegiance to their team, even creating a chant about it. However, following the tragic events of 9/11 and the nearly 3,000 lives lost, Arsenal distanced itself from bin Laden. They released an official statement declaring that, due to his actions, he was no longer welcome at their matches.
Hopefully, this public rejection made bin Laden reconsider his actions.
3. He Had a Pornography Addiction
While Osama bin Laden often preached about sharia law, by the time he spent his years in hiding in Pakistan, he had developed a troubling addiction to pornography.
The initial report on bin Laden's collection of adult material noted it as being 'fairly extensive,' though the CIA has been tight-lipped about the specifics. They've refused to disclose much, except to mention that it contained 'inappropriate still images' and 'recorded video.'
Vice News and a website called BroBible even filed a Freedom of Information Act request in an attempt to get access to bin Laden’s collection, humorously asking, 'What kind of porn did the world’s most wanted man watch?' However, the CIA did not release any additional information.
But don't worry, thanks to some diligent investigators, we have a good idea of what bin Laden was into. They carefully sifted through the publicly available file names on his computer and uncovered some surprising details.
Bin Laden had a penchant for Japanese animated adult films. He amassed a large library of retro porno video games from the 1980s, featuring pixelated depictions of scantily clad characters. Among his collection was a controversial and extreme cartoon fetish video called Bible Black, which is known for pushing boundaries even within the Japanese animated adult genre.
Finally, his computer contained a series of images with filenames like 'asss.gif,' 'booby_2.jpg,' and, perhaps most telling, '1dick.jpg.'
2. He Had A Steam Gaming Account
During his final years, Osama bin Laden spent considerable time immersed in video games. He maintained an active Steam account, where he had copies of popular titles like Half-Life, Final Fantasy VII, and Batman: Gotham Knight.
However, what truly captivated him were retro games. Bin Laden collected vintage video game emulators and ROMs, including a variety of timeless classics. His favorite? Street Fighter—he had multiple versions, including Street Fighter II, Street Fighter IV, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, and even an anime adaptation of the series.
One of the most amusing finds on bin Laden's Steam account was his penchant for Counter-Strike, the iconic online multiplayer game where terrorists face off against counterterrorists. This means that if you played Counter-Strike between 2001 and 2011, you might have unknowingly taken down bin Laden. And, frankly, we wouldn't hold it against you if you decided to tea-bag him after winning.
1. He Was In Love With Whitney Houston
Osama bin Laden harbored a surprising infatuation with Whitney Houston, a fact that defies his usual stance against music. He was so opposed to music that he would lower the volume on his TV if there was even background music in a show. In fact, bin Laden once proclaimed, “Music is the flute of the Devil.”
However, according to Kola Boof, a woman who claimed to have had an affair with bin Laden in 1996, the terrorist leader displayed a very different side in private. When they were together, Boof says he turned into a ‘devout party boy’ who would request tunes from Van Halen or the B-52s.
Boof recounts that bin Laden's greatest obsession was Whitney Houston. “Her name came up constantly,” she said, “he would always talk about how beautiful she was and how wonderful her smile was. He even told me that, to make her his own, he would break his color rule and marry her.”
Boof further claimed that bin Laden once considered having Whitney Houston’s husband, Bobby Brown, killed so he could marry her and bring her into one of his many mansions. However, he never mustered the courage to contact Houston, so instead, he would dress Boof up like the pop star and pretend.
