E-Mail Confused Osama, and 5 Other Revelations From the Bin Laden Files

Osama bin Laden films an undated propaganda video after dyeing his beard. Photo: CIA

Osama bin Laden may have been the evil mastermind behind the world's most successful terrorist group. But in his final days, he sounded more and more like your great aunt Henrietta: nagging his subordinates for not hating America enough ' the terrorist equivalent of telling the kids to get off his lawn ' and getting awfully confused about this whole e-mail thing.

These are just some of the revelations contained in a selective declassification of documents taken from bin Laden's Abbottabad compound during the Navy SEAL raid that killed him. Coming on the heels of the raid's anniversary, the document release is an evident attempt at driving a wedge between al-Qaida's remaining terrorists and their dead leader's legacy. But they still contribute to a deeper understanding of what al-Qaida is 10 years after the 9/11 attacks.

Get Out of the Way of the Assault Helicopters

The documents don't show many weapons striking fear into al-Qaida's hearts. There are mentions of the drone war in Pakistan: 'Our Waziristani brothers, for example, said that they were frankly exhausted from the enemy's air bombardments,' bin Laden wrote. Update: As CNN notes, bin Laden and some of his deputies describe attempts at staying off the roads and traveling on cloudy days to avoid drones.

And there's one unlikely warbird: Russian helicopters, used to attack terrorists in Algeria. Along with the infrared sensors 'provided to the Algerian tyrant by the Americans,' wrote one of bin Laden's acolytes, the 'laser-guided missiles' fired by the MI-34s 'are impacting on the four-wheel-drive vehicles, which are indispensable in the Sahara Desert.' The terrorist begged Osama for cash 'for good-quality weapons to counter these menacing helicopters; the mujahidin don't have single one of them, nor a single missile.'

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