“Bin Laden’s Hard Drive” National Geographic, 9pm EST

Mana
August 3, 2020 10:00am

National Geographic has greenlighted a pair of specials to air in the coming months. Bin Laden’s Hard Drive, which spotlights newly declassified information on the notorious terrorist, premieres September 10, and Virus Hunters, about the experts working to prevent the next pandemic, bow November 1.
Osama bin Laden and his followers. Karga Seven Pictures

In Bin Laden’s Hard Drive from Karga 7 Pictures, author and CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen examines 470,000 digital files seized from al-Qa’ida founder Osama bin Laden’s compound and decodes their secrets with analysis from CIA profilers, criminal psychologists, religious scholars and military experts. Home videos, photos, audio files, GIFs, personal documents and downloads reveal the contradictory personality and personal life of the mastermind behind 9/11 and other terrorist attacks nearly a decade after his death.

“Osama bin Laden’s files left behind an imprint of a complex man, responsible for the murder of thousands of people,” said Bergen, who produced the first televised interview with bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1997. “History will remember him for that, but, in order to cut through the perception of this ascetic in a cave on a holy crusade, it’s important for us to see how he crafted the videos that went out to his followers. … Understanding him is vital in order to combat other potential bin Ladens in the future.”

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