According to the report, Al Qaeda demanded $5 million for the release of an Afghan diplomat held hostage in 2010 and the Afghan government ended up using $1 million from a secret fund that the CIA provided them in monthly cash installments delivered directly to them.

But al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden worried that the cash payment could be a CIA trick, and that the cash was either laced with poison or capable of being tracked, the Times reported. Bin Laden suggested that the money be exchanged for local currency "to be on the safe side in case harmful substances or radiation is put on paper money," bin Laden wrote in a letter to a top lieutenant.

The money went to secure the freedom of Abdul Khaliq Farahi, an Afghan diplomat who had been held captive for two years.