Osama Bin Laden Documents Released

[MCBR]

Newly released papers from Osama Bin Laden's hideout reveal a frustrated al-Qaeda leader struggling to revive a fraying network, the US military says.

The documents seized during the raid on the Abbottabad compound were posted online by the US Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Center.

The papers show he was unhappy with affiliates' attacks on fellow Muslims, urging them to target the US instead.

Seventeen documents were released from a cache of more than 6,000.

The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner says the documents must be seen in context.

The US has a vested interest in portraying Bin Laden as a failure rather than as a force to be reckoned with, our correspondent says.

It must be remembered that the al-Qaeda leader remained a symbolic figure to many because he had evaded capture by the Americans for so long, he adds.
'Formidable event'

The 175-page cache of documents published on Thursday - in the week marking a year since Bin Laden's death - dates from September 2006 to April 2011 and includes letters from other al-Qaeda leaders.

Some papers also suggest that the group had a strained relationship with Iran, Meanwhile, there is no explicit reference to any institutional support from Pakistan, where the al-Qaeda leader lived for nine years.

The documents shed light on Bin Laden's concerns that Muslims were being alienated by the ideology of jihad.

In a letter from 2010, Bin Laden wrote of "starting a new phase to correct [the mistakes] we made".

"In doing so, we shall reclaim, God willing, the trust of a large segment of those who lost their trust in the jihadis," he wrote.

In its executive summary on the documents, the US military says they reveal Bin Laden's frustration with affiliated organisations and his powerlessness to control their actions, including:

• The al-Qaeda leader was advised by his California-born media adviser Adam Gadahn to distance his network from al-Qaeda in Iraq because of the latter's perceived failures

• His lieutenants threatened to take measures against the leadership of the Pakistani Taliban for their "vile mistakes", including indiscriminate attacks on Muslims

• Bin Laden wrote a strongly worded letter to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula urging them to focus on attacking the US, instead of the Yemeni government or security forces

• Bin Laden saw little to gain from a pledge of allegiance to al-Qaeda from the Somali radical insurgent group al-Shabab, which he viewed as poorly organised

Other papers suggest Bin Laden ordered his militants to look out for opportunities to assassinate President Obama or Gen David Petraeus during any of their official visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

But he warned them not to bother targeting Vice-President Joe Biden because "Biden is totally unprepared for that post [of president], which will lead the US into a crisis."

In a letter from April 2011, Bin Laden discusses the Arab Spring, calling it a "formidable event" in the history of Muslims and expressing his hope of influencing events through media outreach and "guidance".

Earlier this week, White House counter-terrorism chief John Brennan said the cache reinforced the view that the US was safer without him.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17941778

[MCBR]

If the .pdf doesn't work [2nd link], just right click and save link as/save target as and download and view it. [it's small, around 700kb]

[niknik]

Oh can't wait to hear the non believers take

[niknik]

I hope you fools read this, especially buttlowski

[DiamondSmiles]

I thought he was there watching porno all day, even with what? Five to seven wives. I forget how many.

[Bletch]

Rumor has it that there was alot of porn in his possesion. What an infidel!