Osama bin Laden documents released: trove from Al-Qaida leader’s compound declassified

 

A selection from more than 6,000 pages documents seized during the May 1, 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden were released on Thursday by West Point's Combating Terrorism Center, giving the public a rare glimpse into the Al-Qaida leader's terror plans and largely solitary life.

A total of 17 documents totaling 175 pages--uncovered from bin Laden's Abbottabad compound by U.S. forces.--were released by the CDC. Both the Arabic originals and versions translated and summarized in English were posted on the center's website shortly before 9 a.m. ET.

As was previously reported, some of the documents show that bin Laden ordered the assassinations of President Barack Obama and U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, but did not have the resources to carry out the killings.

"Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make [Vice President Joe] Biden take over the presidency for the remainder of the term, as it is the norm over there," bin Laden wrote in a letter to one of his top lieutenants. "Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the U.S. into a crisis. 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."

The earliest letter is dated September 2006 and the latest April 2011, the CDC said. The internal communications were authored by several al-Qaida leaders, including bin Laden, Atiyya Abd al-Rahman, Abu Yahya al-Libi and Adam Gadahn, the terror group's American spokesman.

Given that the electronic documents were "saved on thumb drives, memory cards or the hard drive of Bin Laden's computer," the CDC noted, it's unclear whether any of these letters reached their intended destinations.

In another letter, bin Laden vows to avenge the war in Afghanistan, while assuring one of his deputies that America does not have the financial resources to continue it.

"They struck us and we will strike them back," he wrote, according to the CDC's translation. "This year has been the worst year for them in Afghanistan since they invaded it. The number of their dead has never been this high according to their own reports. Their financial crisis continues. Britain has lowered is defense budget and America is reducing the budget of the Pentagon. Anyone who knows the world and knows politics, knows that it is impossible for them to continue with the war."

In another, bin Laden compares two of Al-Qaida's enemies: Arab leaders and America, concluding that the U.S. should remain its most important target:

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