Just past the fourth anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death, new details from the raid of his compound have been trickling out. It's also become increasingly hard to besmirch his reputation among similarly radical extremists, but this new nugget might just do the trick. It seems our righteous friend apparently broke one of his religion's cardinal sins by having a treasure trove of porn on his computer.
According to The New York Times (link below), this discovery kind of runs counter to bin Laden's often preached gripes about the West.
The discovery of the pornography, first reported by Reuters, may not be surprising in a collection of five computers, 10 hard drives and dozens of thumb drives and CDs whose age and past ownership is not known.
But the disclosure could fuel accusations of hypocrisy against the founder of Al Qaeda, who was 54 and lived with three wives at the time of his death, and will be welcomed by counterterrorism officials because it could tarnish his legacy and erode the appeal of his brand of religious extremism.
In a 2002 “letter to the American people,” Bin Laden denounced American culture for its exploitation of women’s bodies in dress, advertising and popular culture.
“Your nation exploits women like consumer products or advertising tools, calling upon customers to purchase them,” he wrote. “You plaster your naked daughters across billboards in order to sell a product without any shame. You have brainwashed your daughters into believing they are liberated by wearing revealing clothes, yet in reality all they have liberated is your sexual desire.”
Ah, hypocrisy, my old friend. It's always great to see you turn up in stories like this. It really is the tie than binds so many extremists across nearly every religion on the planet. Since this is the Times, most of the story focuses on other things discovered on his computers, but this is clearly the best part. I don't believe in hell, but I do love the idea of him and his zealous buddies walking into the afterlife ready to greet a gaggle of virgins with raging hard-ons, only to be confronted by demons who turn them into sex slaves. It's one of life's little pleasures.