The documents were translated from Arabic and declassified by US intelligence agencies. They were part of a second tranche of documents seized in the operation and have been declassified since May 2015. A large number have yet to be released. One document, a hand-written note that US intelligence officials believe the late al-Qaeda leader composed in the late 1990s, laid out how he wanted to distribute about $29m he had in Sudan.
One percent of the $29mn, Bin Laden wrote, should go to Mahfouz Ould al-Walid, a senior al-Qaeda member who used the nom de guerre Abu Hafs al-Mauritani. Bin Laden lived in Sudan for five years as an official guest until he was asked to leave in May 1996 by the then-government under pressure from the United States. Another one percent of the sum should be given to a second associate, Abu Ibrahim al-Iraqi Sa’ad, an engineer, for helping set up Bin Laden’s first company in Sudan, Wadi al-Aqiq Co, the document said.
Bin Laden urged his close relatives to use the rest of the funds to support al-Qaeda’s activities. “I hope for my brothers, sisters and maternal aunts to obey my will and to spend all the money that I have left in Sudan on jihad, for the sake of Allah,” he wrote.

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