The CIA has released hundreds of thousands of documents, images, and computer files recovered during the May 2011 raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

One of the newly-available files is a handwritten, 228-page journal kept by Osama bin Laden himself. The Arabic-language notebook, which can be viewed above, contains the al Qaeda master’s private reflections on the world and al Qaeda’s place in it.

Some of the pages contain bin Laden’s thoughts on the 2011 Arab uprisings, which bin Laden wanted his men to capitalize on. While al Qaeda did not predict the revolutions that swept through North Africa and the Middle East, it moved quickly to set up operations in countries such as Libya.

FDD’s Long War Journal will continue to work on the journal in the coming weeks, but others can access it above in the meantime.

Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.

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