Nearly a decade after Osama bin Laden’s death a new National Geographic special theorises that he might have used pornographic content to send encrypted messages to his followers.
In the documentary, which airs on September 10, CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen decodes 470,000 digital files which were found at Osama bin Laden’s compound with analysis from CIA profilers, criminal psychologists, religious scholars and military experts. The files include home videos, photos, audio files, GIFs, personal documents and indeed Bergen says,
“A significant amount of pornography.”
Nick Schager from The Daily Beast writes that the documentary presents an interesting theory about the pornographic content. Did Osama bin Laden hide encrypted messages in porn videos to communicate with his Al-Qaeda associates? That would be a good story!
In the documentary, however, we aren’t told what kind of porn he watched. As a matter of fact, we don’t know if he was watching these videos at all. Many of his computers were previously owned by others and he lived together with 22 people. As such, it’s possible that the x-rated videos weren’t actually his.
Nonetheless, Bin Laden’s Hard Drive suggests that sex videos could have been a tool for secret communication. In his letters, it’s clear that Bin Laden feared using email as the encryption couldn’t be trusted. Perhaps the idea of using porn videos for evil messages isn’t so crazy. In fact, sending barbaric commands through what he declared as ‘sinful’ content seems quite fitting.
On the other hand,
“Biology trumps ideology,”
States CIA consultant Reid Meloy. Despite his outward piousness, Bin Laden could have just been a normal guy who wanted to get his rocks off. Hiding out without internet must have gotten boring, right?
If you’re fascinated by evil people, check out these innocent photos of history’s most evil people as kids.
