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U.S. NEWSThursday 21 May 2015
US releases bin Laden documents swept up in raid
A translated copy of an application to join Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network is photographed in one of his wives, should she become a martyr.
Washington, Wednesday, May 20, 2015. The document is among 100 realized by U.S. intelligence remarry after his death, to Drone strikes against al-
officials. U.S. intelligence officials have released more than 100 documents seized in the raid on still choose to live beside Qaida leaders in Pakistan,
Osama bin Laden’s compound, including a loving letter to his wife and a job application for his him in paradise. He also di- the near-suffocation of the
terrorist network. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence says the papers were taken in rects her to send their son group’s affiliate in Iraq be-
the Navy SEALs raid that killed bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011. to the battlefield. ginning in 2007, and other
Despite some surprising developments severely
(AP Photo) quirks in the collection, the undercut bin Laden in the
overall message of the 103 years before his death. The
CONNIE CASS compound portray a lead- his extensive family. letters, videos and reports terrorist threat shifted to
ROBERT BURNS er cut off from his under- Focus your fighting on made public Wednesday al-Qaida affiliates in other
Associated Press lings, disappointed by their America, not each other, hews to the terror group’s areas, including in Yemen
WASHINGTON (AP) — Doc- failures, beset by their com- the sidelined al-Qaida familiar mission: In the and North Africa. U.S. offi-
uments swept up in the plaints and regretting years chief exhorts his followers. In name of God, find a way cials have said that at the
raid on Osama bin Laden’s of separation from much of a videotaped will, he urges to kill Americans. Kill Euro- time of bin Laden’s death
peans. Kill Jews. al-Qaida no longer exer-
“Uproot the obnoxious tree cised the same level of
by concentrating on its control he once had.
American trunk,” bin Lad- A May 2007 letter to bin
en writes in a letter urging Laden from “the Jihad
al-Qaida affiliates in North and Reform Front” implores
Africa to not be distracted him to disavow “the on-
by fighting local security going catastrophes and
forces and to avoid Muslim disasters” committed by
infighting. al-Qaida in Iraq, the fore-
The U.S. Office of the Direc- runner of today’s Islamic
tor of National Intelligence State group, which strayed
said the documents, re- from al-Qaida’s orders with
leased as online images, its brutal attacks on fellow
were among a collection Muslims.
of books, U.S. think tank re- “If you still can, then this is
ports and other materials your last chance to rem-
recovered in the May 2011 edy the Jihad breakdown
raid that killed bin Laden at that is about to take place
his compound in Abbotta- in Iraq,” the letter warns bin
bad, Pakistan. Laden.
The information was de- Al-Qaida did reject the
classified and made public splinter group, but the Is-
after a review by govern- lamic State kept grow-
ment agencies, as required ing, and after bin Laden’s
by a 2014 law. Hundreds death it went on to seize a
more documents found swath of Syria and Iraq, kill-
at the compound will be ing Muslims and Christians,
reviewed for possible de- beheading Westerners and
classification and release, drawing warplanes from a
the office said Wednesday, U.S.-led international coali-
four years after bin Laden’s tion to the region.
death. At one point, an undated
The documents, as trans- “Report on External Opera-
lated by U.S. intelligence tions” presented bin Laden
officials, mix the mun- with a litany of excuses for
dane language of busi- failure to reach al-Qaida’s
ness — personnel training, violent goals for the year,
budget matters, financing including orders to kill Jews.
for “workshops and col- “First of them was bad luck
laborating groups” — with and God wasn’t on our
fervent religious appeals side,” it says, before running
and updates on terrorism through complaints about
plots, all written in flowery a lack of well-trained per-
language full of praise for sonnel, poor communica-
God. tions, trouble with transpor-
The documents include a tation, insufficient weapons
fill-in-the-blanks job appli- and difficulty evading se-
cation for al-Qaida can- curity forces.
didates that not only asks “We are not asking for a
typical human resources convenient atmosphere to
questions about educa- work ... but God knows that
tion and hobbies but also, we have not done our best
“Do you wish to execute a to create the correct at-
suicide operation?” It re- mosphere of work to reach
quests an emergency con- our goal,” the report says.
tact should the applicant
