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Bin Laden letters reveal his concerns at the end
Source: Agencies |
May 4, 2012, Friday
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Print Edition
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In letters from his last hideout, Osama bin Laden fretted about problems in his terrorist network and an erosion of trust among Muslims he wished to incite against their government and the West.
A selection of documents seized in last year's raid on bin Laden's house in Pakistan was posted online by the US Army's Combating Terrorism Center yesterday. The documents show dark days for al-Qaida and its leader after years of attacks by the United States and what bin Laden saw as bumbling within his own organization and its terrorist allies.
"I plan to release a statement that we are starting a new phase to correct (the mistakes) we made," bin Laden wrote in 2010.
"In doing so, we shall reclaim, God willing, the trust of a large segment of those who lost their trust in the jihadis."
Improbable plots
Until the end, bin Laden remained focused on attacking Americans and coming up with plots, however improbable, to kill US leaders. He wished especially to target airplanes carrying General David Petraeus and even President Barack Obama, reasoning that an assassination would elevate an "utterly unprepared" Vice President Joe Biden into the presidency and plunge the US into crisis.
But a US analysts' report released along with bin Laden's correspondence describes him as upset over the inability of spinoff terrorist groups to win public support for their cause, their unsuccessful media campaigns and poorly planned plots that, in bin Laden's view, killed too many innocent Muslims.
Bin Laden adviser Adam Gadahn urged him to disassociate their organization from the acts of al-Qaida's spinoff operation in Iraq, known as AQI, and bin Laden told other terrorist groups not to repeat AQI's mistakes.
The correspondence includes letters by then-second-in-command Abu Yahya al-Libi, taking Pakistani offshoot Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan to task over its attacks on Muslims.
The al-Qaida leadership "threatened to take public measures unless we see from you serious and immediate practical and clear steps toward reforming and dissociating yourself from these vile mistakes that violate Islamic Law," al-Libi wrote.
Bin Laden warned the leader of Yemeni AQAP, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, against attempting a takeover of Yemen, instead saying he should "refocus his efforts on attacking the United States."
Bin Laden also seemed uninterested in recognizing Somali-based al-Shabab because he thought its leaders were poor governors of areas they controlled and too strict with their administration of Islamic penalties, like cutting off the hands of thieves.
The US said the letters reflect al-Qaida's relationship with Iran as "not one of alliance, but of indirect and unpleasant negotiations" over some al-Qaida terrorists and their families imprisoned in Iran.
It wasn't immediately clear how many of bin Laden's documents the US was still keeping secret. The US said the documents span September 2006 to April 2011.
A selection of documents seized in last year's raid on bin Laden's house in Pakistan was posted online by the US Army's Combating Terrorism Center yesterday. The documents show dark days for al-Qaida and its leader after years of attacks by the United States and what bin Laden saw as bumbling within his own organization and its terrorist allies.
"I plan to release a statement that we are starting a new phase to correct (the mistakes) we made," bin Laden wrote in 2010.
"In doing so, we shall reclaim, God willing, the trust of a large segment of those who lost their trust in the jihadis."
Improbable plots
Until the end, bin Laden remained focused on attacking Americans and coming up with plots, however improbable, to kill US leaders. He wished especially to target airplanes carrying General David Petraeus and even President Barack Obama, reasoning that an assassination would elevate an "utterly unprepared" Vice President Joe Biden into the presidency and plunge the US into crisis.
But a US analysts' report released along with bin Laden's correspondence describes him as upset over the inability of spinoff terrorist groups to win public support for their cause, their unsuccessful media campaigns and poorly planned plots that, in bin Laden's view, killed too many innocent Muslims.
Bin Laden adviser Adam Gadahn urged him to disassociate their organization from the acts of al-Qaida's spinoff operation in Iraq, known as AQI, and bin Laden told other terrorist groups not to repeat AQI's mistakes.
The correspondence includes letters by then-second-in-command Abu Yahya al-Libi, taking Pakistani offshoot Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan to task over its attacks on Muslims.
The al-Qaida leadership "threatened to take public measures unless we see from you serious and immediate practical and clear steps toward reforming and dissociating yourself from these vile mistakes that violate Islamic Law," al-Libi wrote.
Bin Laden warned the leader of Yemeni AQAP, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, against attempting a takeover of Yemen, instead saying he should "refocus his efforts on attacking the United States."
Bin Laden also seemed uninterested in recognizing Somali-based al-Shabab because he thought its leaders were poor governors of areas they controlled and too strict with their administration of Islamic penalties, like cutting off the hands of thieves.
The US said the letters reflect al-Qaida's relationship with Iran as "not one of alliance, but of indirect and unpleasant negotiations" over some al-Qaida terrorists and their families imprisoned in Iran.
It wasn't immediately clear how many of bin Laden's documents the US was still keeping secret. The US said the documents span September 2006 to April 2011.
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