Last week, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum welcomed Nelly Lahoud, a senior fellow in New America’s International Security program, to discuss the Abbottabad Papers, hundreds of thousands of pages seized during the U.S. Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in 2011, and what these documents reveal.
In conversation with Clifford Chanin, executive vice president and deputy director for museum programs, Lahoud explained the ins and outs of al-Qaeda’s operations during bin Laden’s hiding in Pakistan, bin Laden’s security concerns for his Abbottabad compound, the role of bin Laden’s daughters and wives as his advisers, and the relationship between al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
In the clip below, Lahoud describes one of the artifacts recovered from bin Laden’s compound following the raid which led to his death: a transcript of bin Laden’s family and advisers discussing the Arab Spring on the night of the raid.