Osama bin Laden letters show a terrorist leader who had lost his flock
Osama bin Laden's letters from Abbottabad provide a fascinating insight into his unravelling; becoming a man of obsessions and worried about his excessively brutal leaders who were killing Muslims instead of focusing on the Great Satan, the USA.
This story was first published in 2012.
The image of Osama bin Laden wrapped in a brown blanket watching television inside his compound said more about the real state of mind of the al-Qa'ida leader than any of his video pronouncements pledging death to Americans.
The picture of him looking isolated and seemingly bemused as he flicked the channels to find anything about his organisation was provided by the US intelligence community shortly after his death. Found in one of the rooms at his compound, it showed an old man at his wits' end.
The declassified documents released yesterday portray him as a terrorist leader unable to orchestrate operations as he wished and powerless to stop his affiliated groups in places such as Yemen, Iraq and Somalia from going their own way in the name of al-Qa'ida.
Though the CIA released only 17 of a vast batch, bin Laden's letters from Abbottabad provide a fascinating insight into the last five years of his life. He became a man of obsessions, he lost confidence in the effectiveness of his networks, he worried about the lack of experience of the junior operatives, and he feared that the brand image of his organisation was being tarnished by over-zealous and excessively brutal regional leaders who were killing Muslims instead of focusing on the Great Satan, the USA.
We may never know how it was that bin Laden managed to live without being detected for five years on the outskirts of a large Pakistani town. But it is clear from the letters and from other intelligence titbits that have emerged since his death that he was not enjoying a life of leisure and relaxation.
One of his obsessions was the fear of being targeted by CIA drones, armed with Hellfire missiles and precision-guided bombs, which scoured the skies over Pakistan looking for al-Qa'ida and other extremist operatives.
Despite his isolation and the fears for his safety, the letters underline that he still believed that he had the prime role in running al-Qa'ida. He wrote at length about the mission he envisaged for his operatives and the need to focus on fighting and targeting the Americans rather than be distracted by local issues.
This was probably his greatest frustration: he had founded and nurtured a terrorist group that the US had had to admit posed the greatest risk to its security, yet he had to while away the hours writing increasingly desperate letters to his underlings to obey his orders.
Osama bin Laden's letters
Bin Laden expressed grave concern about his terror network losing the sympathy of Muslims and described operations killing Muslims as "mistakes," adding it was important that "no Muslims fall victim except when it is absolutely essential."
"It would lead us to winning several battles while losing the war at the end," he wrote.
Bin Laden suggests targeting US interests in "non-Islamic" countries, except where American troops are deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan, to avoid more Muslim casualties.
He also calls for two groups to prepare to take out US President Barack Obama and senior military officer General David Petraeus, now the head of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Bin Laden argued that by killing Mr Obama, the United States would be plunged into crisis because he believed Vice President Joe Biden was not ready for the job.
"Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the US into a crisis," he wrote.
"As for Petraeus, he is the man of the hour in this last year of the war, and killing him would alter the war's path."
At the time the letter was written, General Petraeus was chief of US Central Command, overseeing troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He took over as commander in the Afghanistan war in June 2010.
Assessing the damage done to al-Qa'ida's reputation by violence against Muslims, bin Laden writes of the need for a new campaign designed to rally Islamic followers.
"I intend to issue a statement, in which I would discuss starting a new phase to amend what we have issued - as such we would regain the trust of a large portion of those who had lost their trust in the Mujahidin," he wrote.
In another letter whose author is unclear, there is a discussion about changing al-Qa'ida name to reconnect with Muslims around the world.
The group's current "name reduces the feeling of Muslims that we belong to them, and allows the enemies to claim deceptively that they are not at war with Islam and Muslims, but they are at war with the organisation of al-Qa'ida," according to the letter.
The author proposes a list of possible new names, including the "Muslim Unity Group" and "Islamic Nation Unification Party."
Concerns about violence targeting fellow Muslims is a recurring theme in the declassified documents, with some inside al-Qa'ida angered and frustrated with comrades in Iraq and Pakistan.
One letter from al-Qa'ida leaders addressed to Hakimullah Mahsud, head of the Pakistani Taliban, condemns his organisation for attacks on mosques and marketplaces.
The letter cites "clear legal and religious mistakes" by the Pakistani Taliban which are "contrary to the objectives of Jihad and to the efforts exerted by us."
If the group fails to rectify their mistakes, the authors warn, "we shall be forced to take public and firm legal steps from our side."
The batch of declassified documents was posted online by the Combating Terrorism Centre at the West Point military academy. The letters or draft letters are dated from September 2006 to April 2011, for a total of 175 pages in the original Arabic.
