Among the books, periodicals and letters found in Osama bin Laden’s hide-out in Pakistan was a copy of the former C.I.A. officer Michael Scheuer’s 2004 book, “Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror,” which describes the founder of Al Qaeda as “the most respected, loved, romantic, charismatic and perhaps able figure in the last 150 years of Islamic history.”
奥萨马·本·拉登(Osama bin Laden)在巴基斯坦藏匿期间的书籍、期刊和信件中，有一本前中情局官员迈克尔·朔伊尔(Michael Scheuer)2004年的著作《帝国的傲慢：西方为何在反恐战争中失败》(Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror)，书中把这位基地组织(Al Qaeda)的创始人描述为“近150年来的伊斯兰历史上最受尊敬与热爱，最浪漫，最有人格魅力，或许也是最有能力的人物”。
Also in his library was a copy of Michel Chossudovsky’s conspiracy-minded book “America’s ‘War on Terrorism,’ ” which argued that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were simply a pretext for American incursions into the Middle East, and that Bin Laden was nothing but a boogeyman created by the United States.
他的藏书中还有一本米歇尔·科塞多夫斯基(Michel Chossudovsky)的《美国的“反恐战争”》(America’s ‘War on Terrorism)。这本书持阴谋论观点，认为2001年9月11日的恐怖袭击只是美国入侵中东的借口，本·拉登只是被美国凭空创造出来的恶魔。These books and others, along with dozens of journal articles and magazine clippings, were found when a Navy SEAL team raided Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011. Declassified on Wednesday, they highlight the Qaeda leader’s fascination with the West. They also illustrate the efforts he made to understand America (the better to fight it) and his need to confirm his own beliefs about its rapacity and corruption (perhaps to justify his terrorist attacks).
2011年，海豹突击队袭击了本·拉登在巴基斯坦阿伯塔巴德藏匿的院落，除了这两本书，他们还发现了其他书籍以及数十份期刊文章和杂志剪贴。上周三，这些资料得到解密，它们表明了本·拉登对西方世界的兴趣，也证明他试图理解美国（并且更好地与之战斗），并且需要借着美国的腐败与贪婪来确认自身的信仰（或许也需要它们来将自己的恐怖主义袭击正当化）。
It should not come as a surprise that the terrorist leader was concerned with his legacy and world image — after all, he was famously recorded watching video of himself on television. Holed up in Abbottabad for perhaps as long as five years without an Internet connection, Bin Laden had plenty of time to read about himself, Al Qaeda and his enemy, the United States.
这位恐怖主义的领袖关心自己的思想遗产和在世界上的形象，这显然并不出人意料，毕竟，他喜欢看电视上自己的录像，这是出了名的。本·拉登在阿伯塔巴德隐居了差不多有五年，不能上互联网，所以有充分的时间阅读关于自己、基地组织和美国敌人的书籍。Bin Laden learned English at an elite Western-style high school in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, where he was by most accounts a serious student, and his library suggests that he spent his last years in hiding as a student again — but a student of terrorism, fixated on American imperialism.
本·拉登早年在沙特阿拉伯吉达市的一所西方式精英中学学习英语，大多数人回忆当年的他是个严肃认真的学生。这份书单表明，在人生最后几年里，藏匿中的本·拉登又重新成了一个学生——不过学的是专门针对美帝国主义的恐怖主义。The declassified list released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence includes art books (“Arabic Calligraphy Workshop”) and health books (“Grappler’s Guide to Sports Nutrition”) described as “documents probably used by other compound residents.” Bin Laden’s books, however, appear pretty much work-related — little or no recreational reading, it seems, for the Qaeda leader.
这份解密资料由国家情报总监办公室公布，书单内还包括《阿拉伯语书法研究》(Arabic Calligraphy Workshop)等艺术书籍和《摔跤运动员营养指南》(Grappler’s Guide to Sports Nutrition)等健康书籍，官员们说，“这些东西可能是院落里其他居住者们使用的”。不过本·拉登自己读的书显然都是和工作相关的，几乎没有什么消遣性的阅读材料。Some of the books are mainstream history or journalism: “Obama’s Wars” by Bob Woodward, “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers” by Paul Kennedy, “The United States and Vietnam 1787-1941” by Robert Hopkins Miller. Others are conspiracy-mongering tomes like “Bloodlines of the Illuminati” by Fritz Springmeier, “The Taking of America, 1-2-3” by Richard Sprague, and “Secrets of the Federal Reserve” by Eustace Mullins, a Holocaust denier.
有些书是主流历史或新闻著作，如鲍勃·奥德伍德(Bob Woodward)的《奥巴马的战争》(Obama’s Wars)、保罗·肯尼迪(Paul Kennedy)的《大国的兴衰》(The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers)，以及罗伯特·霍普金斯·米勒(Robert Hopkins Miller)的《美国与越南，1787-1941》(The United States and Vietnam 1787-1941)。还有一些兜售阴谋论的巨著，比如菲里兹·斯普林梅尔(Fritz Springmeier)的《光明会的血统》(Bloodlines of the Illuminati)、《统治美国，1-2-3》(The Taking of America, 1-2-3)，以及否认犹太大屠杀的尤斯塔斯·马林斯(Eustace Mullins)所著的《美联署的秘密》(Secrets of the Federal Reserve)。There are two works by Bin Laden’s early mentor, Abdullah Azzam (“The Defense of Muslim Lands” and “Join the Caravan”), about jihad.
有两本书来自本·拉登早期的导师阿卜杜拉·阿扎姆(Abdullah Azzam)：《保卫穆斯林王国》(The Defense of Muslim Lands)和《加入队伍》(Join the Caravan)，都是关于伊斯兰圣战的。There is also a sizable cache of documents relating to France, such as “Wage Inequality in France” and “France on Radioactive Waste Management, 2008.” And there are books by the left-wing writers Greg Palast (“The Best Democracy Money Can Buy”) and Noam Chomsky (“Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance”) that Bin Laden probably thought ratified some of his own views about American imperial ambitions and corporate corruption.
此外还有大量关于法国的资料，诸如《法国的薪资不平等》(Wage Inequality in France)和《法国的放射性废料管理，2008》(France on Radioactive Waste Management, 2008)。还有些左翼作家的书籍，如格雷格·帕拉斯特(Greg Palast)的《金钱能买到的最好的民主》(The Best Democracy Money Can Buy)和诺姆·乔姆斯基(Noam Chomsky)的《霸权还是生存：美国对全球统治的追求》(Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance)，本·拉登或许觉得它们能够印证他对美帝国主义野心与大公司腐败的一些看法。While stuck in Abbottabad, Bin Laden seems to have been studying publicly available United States government documents and articles and radical publications. He also read Foreign Policy magazine articles and RAND Corporation studies on counterinsurgency, trying to keep a handle on the war on terrorism he had set off.
被困在阿伯塔巴德期间，本·拉登似乎仍在研究任何可以到手的美国政府公开的文件、文章与基本出版物。他还读《对外政策》(Foreign Policy)杂志上的文章，以及兰德公司(RAND Corporation)对镇压叛乱的研究，努力跟上由他肇始的恐怖主义战争的形势。His bookshelf is a weird hodgepodge. It’s hard to know how complete a list it is, and whether he requested certain books from aides, or if aides sent him works they thought he might like or that might influence his thinking.
他的书架堪称古怪的大杂烩。公布出来的书单有多完整，目前不得而知；人们也无从知道这些书是他特意要求助手去买的，又或者是助手为他挑选了这些书；更无法知道这些书他是否喜欢，抑或对他产生了多少影响。The declassified letters and correspondence reflect Bin Laden’s managerial concerns — Al Qaeda had become a kind of giant corporation. His self-prescribed syllabus included works on global issues, like climate change, and ran a spectrum from historical works to crackpot conspiracy tracts.
解密的笔记与通信反映出本·拉登在管理方面的忧虑——基地组织已经成为某种巨大的公司组织。本·拉登亲自为他们制定的课程包括对气候变化等全球问题的研究，从历史研究到离奇的阴谋论文件无所不有。The eclectic nature of the list speaks to both Bin Laden’s reach as Al Qaeda’s leader and his limitations as an international fugitive; his ambitions to think globally and his naïve susceptibility to theorists who talk conspiracy to explain the perfidies of the West; his fascination with America; and his determination to find new ways to attack it by trying to understand the dynamics of its political and economic systems.
这份书单的折中主义本质反映出本·拉登作为基地组织领袖的关注范围，以及他作为国际逃亡者的局限性；他有着以全球化视野看待问题的野心，然而对那些以阴谋论来解释西方背信弃义的理论家们又有着天真的轻信；他迷恋美国；同时又努力去了解它政治与经济系统的运行，以图寻找新的方式去攻击它。As Steve Coll wrote in his compelling biography of the Bin Laden family, “The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century”: “Osama was not a stranger to the West,” having grown up in one of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest families and traveled abroad, “but by age 15, he had already erected a wall against their allures. He felt implicated by the West, and by its presence in his own family, and yet, as he would demonstrate in the years ahead, he lacked a sophisticated or subtle understanding of Western society and history. He used his passport, but he never really left home.”
史蒂夫·科尔(Steve Coll)的《本·拉登：美国世纪中的阿拉伯家族》(The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century)是他为本·拉登家族撰写的一部引人入胜的传记，书中写道：“奥萨马对西方世界并不陌生”，他成长在沙特阿拉伯最富裕的家庭之一，曾经周游世界，“但是到了15岁那年，他已在心底筑起高墙，把西方世界的诱惑拒之门外。他觉得自己与西方世界，乃至它对自己家族的影响密切相关，但在未来的岁月里，他的行为证明他对西方社会和历史的理解并不成熟深入。他使用护照到处旅行，但他其实从未真正离开家乡。”