“Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo,” radioed a member of SEAL Team Six as the special-operations force zeroed in on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

When it was over, the SEALs had not only eliminated the al Qaeda leader, they had his mail as well — thousands of letters, plus notes on al Qaeda activities. The U.S. government handed some of the stuff over to the Countering Terrorism Center at West Point, which in turn cranked out a report analyzing the documents.