After herbal viagra, Osama’s penchant for hardcore porn revealed

Washington: Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden had built up a ``fairly extensive`` stash of pornography at his final hideout in Pakistan’s Abbottabad city, US officials have said.

The Saudi-born terrorist, who had evaded capture for a decade, was killed on May 2 in a top secret operation involving a small team of US Special Forces in Abbottabad, located 50 kilometres northeast of Islamabad and 150 kilometres east of Peshawar. The enormous cache of computer files taken from bin Laden’s hideout contained a considerable quantity of pornographic videos, American officials said, adding a discordant note to the public image of the Islamist militant who long denounced the West for its lax sexual mores, The New York Times reports. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity about classified material, would not say whether there was evidence that bin Laden or the other men living in the house had acquired or viewed the material, it added. Dozens of X-rated videos were seized from Bin Laden’s compound, apparently brought to him by couriers and without the knowledge of his three wives, the Daily Mail reported. The collection of pornography consisted of recently filmed videos, it added. The discovery of the pornography 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 Al Qaeda founder, 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, said the NYT report. 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,” bin Laden added. Bin Laden’s Yemeni wife had recently claimed that the killed al-Qaeda leader was not on kidney dialysis, but used to take Viagra during his stay in his Pakistani compound. Insisting that bin Laden used to take the herbal impotence drug, Amal al-Sadeh, who was shot in the leg when US Navy SEALs burst into their bedroom and killed the terror leader, said: "He believed in his own medication." The medicines that were found in the compound reportedly included drugs to treat shingles, ulcers, nerve pain, high blood pressure, and Avena syrup, an extract of wild oats that is marketed as a natural "Viagra”. ANI