Bin Laden still pulled the strings until his death
Source: Agencies |
May 13, 2011, Friday
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THOUGH hunted and in hiding, Osama bin Laden remained the driving force behind every recent al-Qaida terror plot, US officials say, citing his private journal and other documents recovered in last week's raid.
Until Navy SEALs killed him a week ago, bin Laden dispensed chilling advice to the leaders of al-Qaida groups from Yemen to London: "Hit Los Angeles, not just New York," he wrote.
"Target trains as well as planes. If possible, strike on significant dates, such as US Independence Day on July 4 and the upcoming 10th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001."
He urged: "Kill more Americans in a single attack, to drive them from the Arab world."
Bin Laden's written words show that counterterrorist officials worldwide underestimated how key he remained to running the organization, shattering the conventional thinking that he had been reduced through isolation to being an inspirational figurehead, US officials said on Wednesday on condition of anonymity.
His personal, handwritten journal and his massive collection of computer files show he helped plan every recent major al-Qaida threat the US is aware of, including plots in Europe last year that had travelers and embassies on high alert, two officials said.
So far, no new plots have been uncovered in bin Laden's writings, but intelligence officials say it will take weeks, if not months, to go through them.
The records show bin Laden was communicating from his walled compound in Pakistan with al-Qaida's offshoots, including the Yemen branch, which has emerged as the leading threat to the United States.
US officials have not shared any specific evidence yet that he was directly behind the attempted Christmas Day 2009 bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner or the nearly successful attack on cargo planes heading for Chicago and Philadelphia, but it's now clear that they bear some of bin Laden's hallmarks.
He was well aware of US counterterrorist defenses and schooled his followers how to work around them, the messages to his followers show.
In one particularly macabre bit of mathematics, bin Laden's writings show him musing over just how many Americans he must kill to force the US to withdraw from the Arab world.
He concludes that the smaller, scattered attacks since the 9/11 attacks had not been enough. He tells his disciples that only a body count of thousands, something on the scale of 9/11, would shift US policy.
He also schemed about ways to sow political dissent in Washington and play political figures against one another, officials said. Intelligence officials have not found any new plots in their initial analysis of the 100 or so flash drives and five computers that Navy SEALs hauled away.
Until Navy SEALs killed him a week ago, bin Laden dispensed chilling advice to the leaders of al-Qaida groups from Yemen to London: "Hit Los Angeles, not just New York," he wrote.
"Target trains as well as planes. If possible, strike on significant dates, such as US Independence Day on July 4 and the upcoming 10th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001."
He urged: "Kill more Americans in a single attack, to drive them from the Arab world."
Bin Laden's written words show that counterterrorist officials worldwide underestimated how key he remained to running the organization, shattering the conventional thinking that he had been reduced through isolation to being an inspirational figurehead, US officials said on Wednesday on condition of anonymity.
His personal, handwritten journal and his massive collection of computer files show he helped plan every recent major al-Qaida threat the US is aware of, including plots in Europe last year that had travelers and embassies on high alert, two officials said.
So far, no new plots have been uncovered in bin Laden's writings, but intelligence officials say it will take weeks, if not months, to go through them.
The records show bin Laden was communicating from his walled compound in Pakistan with al-Qaida's offshoots, including the Yemen branch, which has emerged as the leading threat to the United States.
US officials have not shared any specific evidence yet that he was directly behind the attempted Christmas Day 2009 bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner or the nearly successful attack on cargo planes heading for Chicago and Philadelphia, but it's now clear that they bear some of bin Laden's hallmarks.
He was well aware of US counterterrorist defenses and schooled his followers how to work around them, the messages to his followers show.
In one particularly macabre bit of mathematics, bin Laden's writings show him musing over just how many Americans he must kill to force the US to withdraw from the Arab world.
He concludes that the smaller, scattered attacks since the 9/11 attacks had not been enough. He tells his disciples that only a body count of thousands, something on the scale of 9/11, would shift US policy.
He also schemed about ways to sow political dissent in Washington and play political figures against one another, officials said. Intelligence officials have not found any new plots in their initial analysis of the 100 or so flash drives and five computers that Navy SEALs hauled away.
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