US Releases Bin Laden Documents, Including Tulsa Connection

Documents swept up in the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound portray a leader cut off from his underlings, disappointed by their failures, beset by their complaints and regretting years of separation from much of his extensive family.

Despite some surprising quirks in the collection, the overall message of the 103 letters, videos and reports made public Wednesday hews to the terror group's familiar mission: In the name of God, find a way to kill Americans. Kill Europeans. Kill Jews.

The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the documents, released as online images, were among a collection of books, U.S. think tank reports and other materials recovered in the May 2011 raid that killed bin Laden at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Bin Laden's Bookshelf

One of those declassified documents showed a connection between bin Laden and Tulsa. It was a digitized copy of a Tulsa World article he kept in his bunker. The article was on criminal charges against David Coleman Headley who pleaded guilty to terrorism in planning attacks on Mumbai in 2008.

The information was declassified and made public after a review by government agencies, as required by a 2014 law. Hundreds more documents found at the compound will be reviewed for possible declassification and release, the office said Wednesday, four years after bin Laden's death.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.