“Who should we contact in case you become a martyr?” and other actual questions from al Qaeda's HR department

"Any hobbies or pastimes?" Osama bin Laden needs to know

Published May 20, 2015 4:12PM (EDT)

  (AP)
(AP)

The findings in the vaunted "treasure trove" of documents allegedly discovered by the Navy SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden range from the outright hilarious -- he was reading a book about 9/11 having been an "inside job" -- to the sublimely mundane, including an application for al Qaeda that could have come straight off of "Archer."

"What objectives would you like to accomplish on your jihad path?" asked someone ThinkProgress' Kay Steiger theorized must work in #alQaedaHR. Many a young jihadist was likely confused whether this question was meant literally or not: "Did you encounter any difficulties on the road to this place?"

Some of the questions were reasonable, at least for a paramilitary terrorist organization, like "Have you received any military training?" and "Were you previously affiliated to any other [terrorist] groups?"

The latter being very important -- you don't want a Zionist to infiltrate your anti-Semitic war machine, after all. And learning what "shaykhs or Muslim dignitaries" a new recruit knows is important for an outfit that's going to need to cold, hard cash to keep killing Americans.

But some of the questions are just appalling in their ordinariness. "Any hobbies or pastimes?" for example, because bin Laden really needed to know that you were the chairman of your crochet circle or First Sergeant II of your "Call of Duty" team.

Actually, that last one might be important, but you see the point -- apparently it was important for bin Laden to know everything about the lives of the men he was sending off to certain death, including who contact in the inevitable event of it:

"Who should we contact in case you become a martyr?" the application requests.


By Scott Eric Kaufman

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