Osama bin Laden fretted his wife's clothes hid a microscopic bug.

Declassified documents have shed new light on the mindset of Osama bin Laden, his debates over tactics, his anxiety over Western spying and his fixation with the group’s media image.

According to the files, Al Qaeda’s founder pleaded with his followers to stay focused on attacking the United States instead of being dragged into Muslim infighting.

“The focus should be on killing and fighting the American people and their representatives,” bin Laden wrote.

The letter was among thousands of files found by US Navy SEALs on May 2, 2011 when they descended on bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan and shot him dead.

US intelligence agencies have declassified more than 100 of the documents taken from bin Laden's archive after politicians ordered the move and critics accused the CIA of withholding material.

Jeff Anchukaitis, spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said the release of "a sizeable tranche of documents" was in line with president Barack Obama's call for "increased transparency".

It was also in accordance with a law obliging the spy agencies to review all the bin Laden material for possible release, he said.

The documents released are English translations of the originals, with no way to independently verify the materials or the accuracy of the translation.

The release came shortly after US journalist Seymour Hersh alleged Washington's official account of the hunt for bin Laden and the raid that led to his death was a lie.

But CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani said the declassification had been planned for at least a year and had not been intended as a response to Hersh's report.

Interest in French economy and conspiracy theories

From strategic and theological discussions to the mundane details of domestic funding and security measures, the documents show the man behind 9/11 preoccupied with once again attacking the West in spectacular fashion.

Mindful of drone strikes taking out senior jihadist figures, bin Laden frequently referred to security headaches and advised against communicating by email.

He scolded his followers for gathering in large groups and fretted about a microscopic bug being inserted in his wife's clothes.

He set out plans to groom a new cadre of leaders and his associates discussed arrangements for smuggling bin Laden's favourite son and likely heir, Hamza, to Pakistan.

The spy agencies also released a list of English language books and articles found in bin Laden's compound.

The "bookshelf" of PDF files showed the Al Qaeda leader was particularly interested in France's economy and conspiracy theories — including those questioning accounts of the 9/11 attacks.

Intelligence officials said the texts suggested bin Laden was possibly planning to strike at the French economy in hopes of triggering a wider collapse in the West.

Before he was killed, bin Laden wrote of plans for an elaborate propaganda blitz to mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

And among the material posted by US spy agencies was an unreleased video in which bin Laden appears to stumble delivering a speech.

But the documents also highlight deep divisions among the militants over how to wage their terror campaign.

Bin Laden warned that conflict with regimes in the Middle East would distract the extremists from hitting hard at what as far as he was concerned was the real enemy — America.

"We should stop operations against the army and the police in all regions, especially Yemen," he wrote.

Bin Laden set on large-scale attacks

Al Qaeda's branch in Iraq, which would later morph into the Islamic State group — and which now increasingly overshadows Al Qaeda — also comes up in the documents.

Bin Laden and his then deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, receive a scathing rebuke in a letter from some Iraqi supporters, who demand they denounce the bloodletting in Iraq.

In a letter dated May 22, 2007, the Jihad and Reform Front warned bin Laden that God would hold him to account "for blessing the work done by the Al Qaeda in Iraq organisation without disavowing the scandals that are committed in your name".

Bin Laden wrote of the need for large-scale terror operations, even though some of his deputies were finding it difficult to organise mass attacks with drones overhead and US eavesdropping.

One document recently declassified in a terrorism trial in New York but not released on Wednesday quoted Abu Musab al-Suri, an Al Qaeda veteran, who advocated going after smaller targets of opportunity as a more realistic approach, officials said.

"Bin Laden at the time of his death remained focused on large-scale operations while other Al Qaeda leaders believed smaller operations, or inciting lone terrorist attacks, could succeed at bleeding the West economically," the intelligence analyst said.

Bin Laden lost the argument. After his death, Al Qaeda's leadership called for lone wolf attacks, and Suri's idea of "individual jihad" has won out.

The IS group, which was officially rejected by Al Qaeda, now controls vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria and its online propaganda has been blamed for inspiring attacks from Paris to the Dallas suburbs.

This post originally appeared on the ABC and was republished here with full permission.