The U.S. released a trove of documents seized when special forces stormed Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan in 2011 that include references to unfulfilled plots such as an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
Among the documents captured at the hideout in Abbottabad, where the terrorist behind the Sept. 11 attacks was killed, are appraisals of extremist efforts in Pakistan and Afghanistan, an eclectic list of books owned by the al-Qaida leader and an application form to join his group.
The trove of captured material, released on Wednesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, underscored bin Laden's preoccupation with attacking U.S. and Western targets. That's in contrast to the emphasis on capturing territory and establishing a caliphate in the Middle East that has been the prime goal so far of the Islamic State group that broke off from al-Qaida and has seized a swath of Syria and Iraq.