Bin Laden son asks US government for father’s death certificate

According to a recently leaked document, the son of al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden, Abdullah bin Laden, sent a letter to the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia to ask for his father's death certificate.

In response, the embassy wrote to Abdullah to inform him that there was no death certificate issued for the older bin Laden, The Washington Post reports.

The letter went on to suggest other ways that the al-Qaeda leader's death could be officially confirmed.

The remarkable exchange has come to light thanks to the latest release from WikiLeaks, the controversial secret sharing organization helmed by Julian Assange. On Friday, the organization released what it said was the first part of more than a half-million cables and other documents from the Saudi Foreign Ministry, which it had dubbed "The Saudi Cables."

The US Embassy's response to Abdallah was included within the release. It is dated Sept. 9, 2011, approximately four months after bin Laden was killed by US forces during a raid on his hideout in Pakistan. US officials have said that bin Laden was later buried at sea. Requests to publish photographs of bin Laden's body or his burial have been denied and any photographs taken are suspected to have been destroyed.

In the letter to Abdullah bin Laden, Glen Keiser, a consul general at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, explained that the lack of a death certificate for bin Laden is "consistent with regular practice for individuals killed in the course of military operations."

Keiser goes on to suggest that the criminal case against Osama bin Laden had effectively been dropped due to his death since June 2011, and describes a process for requesting the order of "nolle prosequi" (which literally means "unwilling to pursue") from the court, which could act as proof of death.

It's unclear why Abdullah bin Laden had requested the death certificate.