# "Inside Al-Qaeda’s Hard Drive" - Simply an amazing (true) story in Atlantic Magazine! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 18, 2004, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-al-qaeda-s-hard-drive-simply-an-amazing-true-story-in-atlantic-magazine/260363 "2004-08-18T06:40:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-al-qaeda-s-hard-drive-simply-an-amazing-true-story-in-atlantic-magazine/260363/1 "2004-08-18T06:40:51Z")
[Inside Al-Qaeda’s Hard Drive](http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:hT31TATLrGoJ:www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200409/cullison+&hl=en) > [@](#): > > A look inside an Al-Qaeda hard drive > Posted August 14, 2004 @ 12:08PM, by Ken “Caesar” Fisher > The September Edition of the Atlantic Monthly (a favorite read of mine) has a fascinating article by Alan Cullison detailing what he found on the hard drives of a couple of computers he bought in Afghanistan. Cullison was there during the war against the Taliban, and after his laptop was destroyed in a near-fatal crash, he just so happened to find himself in a position to buy both a desktop and a laptop computer that had previously been in Al-Qaeda’s Kabul office. > > The find, as it turns out, was astounding, because while other Al-Qaeda computers had been found before, none were so rich with information. As fate would have it, the laptop belonged to Muhammad Atef, an Al-Qaeda military commander and a key planner of 9/11 attacks. The desktop had been used by Ayman al-Zawahiri, a close contact and top deputy of Osama bin Laden. It was a goldmine. > > The documents included budgets, training manuals for recruits, and scouting reports for international attacks, and they shed light on everything from personnel matters and petty bureaucratic sniping to theological discussions and debates about the merits of suicide operations. There were also video files, photographs, scanned documents, and Web pages, many of which, it became clear, were part of the group’s increasingly sophisticated efforts to conduct a global Internet-based publicity and recruitment effort. > > Much of the material is excerpted in the article, and it is amazing in its breadth and, at times, its quotidian nature. One particular e-mail chastises bin Laden for loving to give press conferences, much to the chagrin of Mullah Omar. E-mails from bin Laden are also included. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-al-qaeda-s-hard-drive-simply-an-amazing-true-story-in-atlantic-magazine/260363/2 "2004-08-18T07:37:51Z")
Yeah, I saw that. It’s not surprising, when you think about it, but it really does hit home how casual these acts are to the men that do them. They’re going about it like it’s a job, instead of sacrificing babies to John Tesh in an evil flame-filled dungeon under Castle Allahskull. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-al-qaeda-s-hard-drive-simply-an-amazing-true-story-in-atlantic-magazine/260363/3 "2004-08-18T14:22:52Z")
I think it was Newsweek (correct me if I’m wrong) that recently did a really good article on it as well. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-al-qaeda-s-hard-drive-simply-an-amazing-true-story-in-atlantic-magazine/260363/4 "2004-08-18T14:43:59Z")
I too read the article, and I agree it is chilling. The two main things I got from it were: -the Al-Queda organization has been around for a long time, and these acts were well planned. In addition, there is a LOT of money required to support these monsters…so the chief task is to shut off their money supply -these vermin have no respect for any human life. They MUST be ruthlessly hunted down and destroyed. So these a-holes who weep about the injustices bestowed upon Moussaoui and the thugs in Guantanamo…spare me. Moussaoui came to the US to MURDER people. He should be tortured to extract any useful information, and then disposed of. preferably sent to General Dostum. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-al-qaeda-s-hard-drive-simply-an-amazing-true-story-in-atlantic-magazine/260363/5 "2004-08-18T15:17:37Z")
Well, they are singularly bad news, no doubt about it. But… ::picks up clue-by-four:: …most of us who have objected to the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib are concerned that the US govt is torturing people that we have no legitimate reason to believe know any more about Al Qaeda / terrorism / the Taliban / Ba’athist Party / Saddam Hussein / Osama bin Laden / potential Kerry voters or other threats to “our way of life” than Slug Signorino does. …most of us who have objected to the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib believe that if we’re going to stomp around the world locking up people without a trial and subjecting them to torture, then our claims to be inherently better than Al Qaeda and Company start to flatten down to “they are out to get us and we are out to get them and we’re better because We are Us and They are Them”. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-al-qaeda-s-hard-drive-simply-an-amazing-true-story-in-atlantic-magazine/260363/6 "2004-08-18T15:32:00Z")
For some reason I read this as **“Inside Al-Qaeda’s Hair Dryer”**. I always thought Osama was kinda metrosexual. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-al-qaeda-s-hard-drive-simply-an-amazing-true-story-in-atlantic-magazine/260363/7 "2004-08-18T16:06:59Z")
> [@](#): > > Sidebar: > > “Tips for the Traveling Terrorist” > “Underwear should be the normal type that people wear, not anything that shows you’re a fundamentalist.” Suggestions lifted from the laptop on how to pass unnoticed in the West. WTF? :eek: 😕 :eek: 😕 I hesitate to ask…but…just what _does_ the trendy, hip, Fundamentalist/Islamic man-about-town wear under his dynamite belt? 😕😕😕😕 ---
**Author:** ![LordVor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90ced4/32.png) [@LordVor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LordVor)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-al-qaeda-s-hard-drive-simply-an-amazing-true-story-in-atlantic-magazine/260363/8 "2004-08-18T16:51:00Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > So these a-holes who weep about the injustices bestowed upon Moussaoui and the thugs in Guantanamo…spare me. What about the people who are weeping about the injustices bestowed upon the common cab drivers and family men in Guantanamo? Are we a-holes too? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-al-qaeda-s-hard-drive-simply-an-amazing-true-story-in-atlantic-magazine/260363/9 "2004-08-18T17:33:04Z")
> [@](#): > > I hesitate to ask…but…just what does the trendy, hip, Fundamentalist/Islamic man-about-town wear under his dynamite belt? Underoos with Osama’s picture, I imagine. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-al-qaeda-s-hard-drive-simply-an-amazing-true-story-in-atlantic-magazine/260363/10 "2004-08-18T18:07:57Z")
So, the US Army has tranasported innocent cab drivers and “family men” to Guantanamo, and keeps them there at a cost of hundreds of dollars a day? They do this for fun?? Yeah, you’ve been watching too much Al-Jazeera! Even if your statement is true, why would US intelligence be so foolish as to hold prisoners who have no conncetion with terrorism? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![LordVor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90ced4/32.png) [@LordVor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LordVor)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-al-qaeda-s-hard-drive-simply-an-amazing-true-story-in-atlantic-magazine/260363/11 "2004-08-18T19:50:20Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > So, the US Army has tranasported innocent cab drivers and “family men” to Guantanamo, and keeps them there at a cost of hundreds of dollars a day? They do this for fun?? > Yeah, you’ve been watching too much Al-Jazeera! > Even if your statement is true, why would US intelligence be so foolish as to hold prisoners who have no conncetion with terrorism? 😕 Try freaken [ABC news](http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Nightline/World/afghanistan_guantanamo_031130-1.html) . Your confusion is mutual. Your ignorance of the situation is not. -lv ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-al-qaeda-s-hard-drive-simply-an-amazing-true-story-in-atlantic-magazine/260363/12 "2004-08-18T22:28:59Z")
**Ralph124c** , you’re hilarious. I got a good laugh out of that one.