UNDATED (CNN) -- It's being described as the single biggest cache of senior terrorist material ever obtained by the U.S. Government. The military seized more than 6000 documents from Osama bin Laden's compound after he was killed last May. Thursday, some of those documents were declassified and published online.
When Navy SEALs raided a Pakistani compound last year, there was more at stake than just taking out Osama bin Laden.
The leader of Al Qaeda was holed up with thousands of documents, audio recordings, and videos saved on computers, hard drives, and more than 100 other devices.
CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen personally examined some of the items while researching his latest book. He says, "It shows bin Laden worried about American drone strikes advising one of his sons to move out of the Pakistani tribal regions. Money was tight. He was talking with his team about kidnapping, which al Qaeda defaulted to as a fund-raising measure."
While some of the documents seized last May will remain confidential for security reasons, 17 were released online Thursday by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney says, "Because of the renewed interest on this anniversary in the mission that led to bin Laden's demise that this was deemed an appropriate time to release them."
They offer insight into the methodology behind bin Laden's terrorist tactics, as well as some of his targets. Bergen says, "He was asking for attacks on the United States. President Obama. General David Petraeus. He said don't bother trying to kill vice president Biden, Sec. of Defense Robert Gates or Admiral Mike Mullen. We really should focus on these two guys. "
The information gleaned from bin Laden's personal terrorism trove can help the U.S. government better prepare troops on the ground overseas and better anticipate threats directed at U.S. soil.