The U.S. Department of Justice has released a series of photos depicting Osama Bin Laden in his Tora Bora, Afghanistan, home. What is particularly striking is that they show Bin Laden before he was a wanted man, in 1996.
The rare images, photographed by British journalist Abdel Barri Atwan, were made public during the DOJ's trial against al Queda lieutenant Khaled al-Fawwaz. Bin Laden is seen inside and around his secluded home in the hills, which Atwan describes as taking seven hours to reach via a dirt road.
Atwan was asked by al-Fawwaz to interview Bin Laden in hopes that a story printed on the al Queda leader would start to spread his message more widely. As it was pre-9/11 he was not yet known as the most wanted man in America but had also already started hiding out, based on the pictures.