On May 2nd, 2011,Osama bin Laden was killedby a United States military special operations unit at his compound in Pakistan. During the raid, code-named Operation Neptune Spear, a number of bin Laden’s assets were seized, including a hard drive that had hundreds of thousands of files stored on it. Yesterday, the CIA released 470,000 of these files to the public, which may reveal that Osama bin Laden was a gamer.
A number of video games and video game-related movies were found on the hard drive, such asFinal Fantasy 7: AdventChildren, which serves as a sequel to the game, as well as the live-actionResident Evilmovies. Bin Laden also pirated a number of Nintendo DS games, such asNew Super Mario Bros.andAnimal Crossing: Wild World, in addition to multipleNarutotitles.
Speaking ofNaruto, it appears as though bin Laden enjoyed anime in general, with piratedDragon BallandBleachgames also found on his hard drive. Of course, it’s possible someone else at the compound was using bin Laden’s computer, and the files found on it may not necessarily be indicative of his actual tastes.
After all, there were other people living at the compound during Operation Neptune Spear, many of whom were younger than bin Laden. While it’s certainly possible Osama bin Laden himself played the pirated games found on his hard drive and watched anime likeNaruto, it’s just as likely that someone else in the compound is responsible.
Ultimately, it’s unlikely that we will ever know for sure if it was Osama bin Laden or someone else at his compound in Pakistan playing video games. Interviewing Operation Neptune Spear survivors to learn of bin Laden’s possible gaming habits is probably not very high on the CIA’s list of priorities, and they would be the only people that would know for sure one way or the other.
