At the end of 2010, Al Qaeda found itself suddenly flush after securing a $5 million ransom, and the group had to decide what to do with its windfall. At a time when the financial uncertainty of the Great Recession made gold a hot investment, Bin Laden turns out to have been as bullish about the precious metal as any Ron Paul devotee, Tea Party patriot or Wall Street financier. In a letter he wrote in December 2010, Bin Laden instructed Al Qaeda’s general manager to set aside a third of the ransom — nearly $1.7 million — to buy gold bars and coins. The letter was part of the trove of intelligence seized by Navy SEALs in the raid on Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011 that was declassified last month by the Central Intelligence Agency.