Related Links

● Months before U.S. raid, bin Laden considered leaving Pakistan compound

● Bob Woodward’s reaction to Osama bin Laden reading his book

 To join Al Qaeda in Osama bin Laden’s day, prospective recruits had to take an arduous and risky journey to the network’s haven in the mountains of northwestern Pakistan, the heartland of global Islamist militancy.

Then they had to fill in an application.

The three pages of questions show how Al Qaeda, in its vision of itself as a disciplined network of committed militants, blended the mundanely bureaucratic with the frighteningly absurd. Among the queries: “Do you wish to execute a suicide operation?” and “Who should we contact in case you become a martyr?”

The last line provided space for the address and phone number of next of kin.