http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-05-11-bin-Laden-journal_n.htm?csp=Da
ilybriefing
AP: Bin Laden journal seized
Updated 8h 6m ago |
WASHINGTON (AP) - Deep in hiding, his terror organization becoming battered
and fragmented, Osama bin Laden kept pressing followers to find new ways to
hit the U.S., officials say, citing his private journal and other documents
recovered in last week's raid.
Strike smaller cities, bin Laden suggested. Target trains as well as planes.
If possible, strike on significant dates, such as the Fourth of July
<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Fourth+of+July> and the upcoming
10th anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Above all, kill as many
Americans as possible in a single attack.
Though he was out of the public eye and al-Qaeda seemed to be weakening, bin
Laden never yielded control of his worldwide organization, U.S. officials
said Wednesday. His personal, handwritten journal and his massive collection
of computer files reveal his hand at work in every recent major al-Qaeda
threat, including plots in Europe last year that had travelers and embassies
on high alert, two officials said.
They described the intelligence to The Associated Press only on condition of
anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about what was
found in bin Laden's hideout. Analysts are continuing to review the
documents.
. STORY: Some U.S. lawmakers to view bin Laden body photos
<http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-05-11-Bin-Laden-photos_n.htm>
The information shatters the government's conventional thinking about bin
Laden, who had been regarded for years as mostly an inspirational figurehead
whose years in hiding made him too marginalized to maintain operational
control of the organization he founded.
Instead, bin Laden was communicating from his walled compound in Pakistan
with al-Qaeda's offshoots, including the Yemen branch that has emerged as
the leading threat to the United States
<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Places,+Geography/Countries/United
+States> , the documents indicate. Though there is no 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, it's now clear that they bear some of
bin Laden's hallmarks.
He was well aware of U.S. counterterrorist efforts and schooled his
followers in working around them, the messages to his followers show. Don't
limit attacks to New York City
<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Places,+Geography/Towns,+Cities,+C
ounties/New+York+City> , he said in his writings. Consider other areas such
as Los Angeles
<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Places,+Geography/Towns,+Cities,+C
ounties/Los+Angeles> or smaller cities. Spread out the targets.
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 U.S. to
withdraw from the Arab world. He concludes that the smaller, scattered
attacks since 9/11 had not been enough. He tells his disciples that only a
body count of thousands, something on the scale of 9/11, would shift U.S.
policy.
He also schemed about ways to sow political dissent in Washington and play
political figures against one another, officials said.
The communications were in missives sent via plug-in computer storage
devices called flash drives. The devices were ferried to bin Laden's
compound by couriers, a process that is slow but exceptionally difficult to
track.
Intelligence officials have not identified any new planned targets or plots
in their initial analysis of the 100 or so flash drives and five computers
that Navy SEALs
<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Military+and+Paramil
itary/Navy+SEALs> hauled away after killing bin Laden. Last week, the FBI
<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Government+Bodies/Fe
deral+Bureau+of+Investigation> and Homeland Security Department
<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Government+Bodies/Un
ited+States+Department+of+Homeland+Security> warned law enforcement
officials nationwide to be on alert for possible attacks against trains,
though officials said there was no specific plot.
Officials have not yet seen any indication that bin Laden had the ability to
coordinate timing of attacks across the various al-Qaeda affiliates in
Pakistan, Yemen, Algeria, Iraq and Somalia, and it is also unclear from bin
Laden's documents how much the affiliate groups relied on his guidance. The
Yemen group, for instance, has embraced the smaller-scale attacks that bin
Laden's writings indicate he regarded as unsuccessful. The Yemen branch had
already surpassed his central operation as al-Qaeda's leading fundraising,
propaganda and operational arm.
Al-Qaeda has not named bin Laden's successor, but all indications point to
his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri. The question is whether al-Zawahri, or anyone,
has the ability to keep so many disparate groups under the al-Qaeda banner.
The groups in Somalia and Algeria, for instance, have very different goals
focused on local grievances. Without bin Laden to serve as their shepherd,
it's possible al-Qaeda will further fragment.
British officials said the Americans had shared some information about the
bin Laden cache but there had been nothing concrete yet to indicate his
stamp on any of the recent terror attacks or plans in Britain - including a
European plot last year involving the threat of a Mumbai-style shooting
spree in a capital. Those officials spoke on condition of anonymity to
discuss matters of intelligence.
Britain's two largest terror attacks and plots - the 2005 suicide bombings
and the trans-Atlantic liquid explosive plot to blow up several airliners in
2006 - both had trails that led back to Pakistan and al-Qaeda figures, but
there was never a direct link to bin Laden himself.
Most of the recent plots, including the stabbing of a lawmaker last year,
have been traced to al-Qaeda in Yemen and specifically the radical
American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, British officials have said.
One British official said counterterror authorities had not been tracking
bin Laden as they had other terrorists deemed more directly involved in
operations - which may have been a mistake, from what they are now learning
from bin Laden's own words.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
--------------------------
Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list,
[email protected].
--------------------------
Brooks Isoldi, editor
[email protected]
http://www.intellnet.org
Post message: [email protected]
Subscribe: [email protected]
Unsubscribe: [email protected]
*** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has
not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of
The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT
YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of
intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods,
techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other
intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes
only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material
as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use
this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,'
you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
