Usama Bin Laden's greatest fear was not capture or death, but the exposure of al-Qaeda's secrets. At great risk to themselves and the entire mission, the U.S. Special Operations Forces, who carried out the Abbottabad raid that killed Bin Laden, took an additional eighteen minutes to collect Bin Laden's hard drives and thereby expose al-Qaeda's secrets. In this ground-breaking book, Nelly Lahoud dives into Bin Laden's files and meticulously distills the nearly 6,000 pages of Arabic private communications. For the first time, al-Qaeda's closely guarded secrets are laid bare, shattering misconceptions and revealing how and what Bin Laden communicated with his associates, his plans for future attacks, and al-Qaeda's hostility toward countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Pakistan.

"The Birth of the Idea" --Jihadis between borders -- Global Jihad on autopilot -- Al-Qaeda "Hides" -- The "Calamity" -- The "Americans" -- Some "Brothers" are more brotherly than others -- The "First Martyr" -- The escapes -- The final chapter -- The real courier.