An AK-47 found next to the body of Osama bin Laden is on display in a "secret" museum at the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters, NBC's Richard Engel and Robert Windrem report.
"Because of its proximity to [bin Laden] there on the third floor in the compound, our analyst determined it to be his," museum curator Toni Hiley told NBC. "It's a Russian AK with counterfeit Chinese markings."
Bin Laden was killed in 2011 at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
“After a fire fight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body,” President Barack Obama said in a May 1 announcement. “No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties.”
The soldiers who killed bin Laden found two of his guns only after he was dead, the Associated Press reported in 2011.
NBC reports on the gun's display at the museum:
Tucked into various hallways at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., the museum displays the gadgets, artifacts and trophies of 70 years of spycraft, from World War II through the War on Terror. Closed to the public, it had only been visited by employees and invited guests until NBC News recently became the first news organization allowed to bring in video cameras.
The Russian-made assault rifle, identified on a simple brass plaque as “Osama bin Laden’s AK-47,” shares a glass case with an al Qaeda training manual found in Afghanistan soon after 9/11.
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