What’s on Laden’s bookshelf revealed
Osama bin Laden was fixated on attacking US targets and pressured al Qaeda groups to heal local rivalries and focus on that cause, according to documents the United States says were seized in his hideout in Pakistan and released on Wednesday.
The documents published by US intelligence also contained details of purported negotiations between al Qaeda, its allies in the Pakistani Taliban and representatives of Pakistani intelligence, and what seemed to be an al Qaeda job application.
This morning the ODNI released documents recovered during the May 2011 Usama bin Ladin raid: http://t.co/BKt47P9dgJ pic.twitter.com/VZE00rfyak
— Office of the DNI (@ODNIgov) May 20, 2015
A July 2010 letter showed that bin Laden pressed al Qaeda in Yemen, one of the group's more active affiliates, to make peace with the government and focus on America.
Newly released bin Laden documents show him doting on family, demanding attacks on Americans instead of other targets pic.twitter.com/gatcDe5Zea
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) May 20, 2015
US declassifies Osama Bin Laden compound documents http://t.co/eMR4YpB7bA pic.twitter.com/Ks1xAHKcLR
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) May 20, 2015
Bin Laden's view was that Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) ought to sign a truce with Yemeni authorities or arrange an accommodation in which Yemeni authorities would leave the group alone "in exchange for focusing on America."
![Bin Laden fixated on attacking US interests: Documents](https://tds-images.thedailystar.net/sites/default/files/styles/big_202/public/news/images/laden-hideout-afp.jpg)
It said the associate recommended "extra security measures" for Anwar al Awlaki, a US-born radical preacher who became one of AQAP's principal strategists and spokesman, and also that Awlaki should be required to "change his way of life."
Awlaki had served as an imam at a mosque in a Virginia suburb of Washington, which was attended by two militants who participated in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He fled to Yemenafter the attacks and was killed in 2011 by a CIA drone strike.
Osama bin Laden's reading list: http://t.co/ZMCakOgxFM pic.twitter.com/7792kB4CCv
— Mashable (@mashable) May 20, 2015
BIN LADEN'S LIBRARY
The documents released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence were part of a cache seized by US commandos who conducted the May 2011 raid on bin Laden's house in Abbottabad, Pakistan when bin Laden was killed.
A document of several pages, which the United States says was printed on stationery carrying a watermark reading "The Security Committee - al Qaeda Organization" appeared to be a blank job application form for would-be al Qaeda members.
It said applicants should "please answer the required information accurate and truthfully," and "please write clearly and legibly."
![Bin Laden fixated on attacking US interests: Documents](https://tds-images.thedailystar.net/sites/default/files/styles/big_202/public/news/images/laden-capture.jpg)
Also seized were official US passport application forms, formal US indictments of al Qaeda-related figures, US government accounts of al Qaeda's organization and details of the US embassy in Pakistan's "Toys for Tots" program.
English-language books seized included "A Brief Guide to Understanding Islam," "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy," "Black Box Voting, Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century," "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" and "Military Intelligence Blunders."
There were also copies of many American media articles, including "Is al-Qaeda Just Bush's Boogeyman?" from the Los Angeles Times in January 2005, and a piece in Newsweek magazine "on hawks and doves on Iraq within the Bush Administration."
#EXCLUSIVE "The focus should be on killing and fighting the American people and their representatives": Bin Laden http://t.co/MVavftacV1
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) May 20, 2015
PAKISTANI INTELLIGENCE LINKS
One document dated July 2010 addressed to "Abu Abdullah," which is one of bin Laden's noms de guerre, from an operative named Mahmud indicated links between al Qaeda and Pakistan's intelligence services, which Pakistan has repeatedly denied.
It said that after al Qaeda leaked information that it was planning "large-scale destructive operations in Pakistan," but had then "halted the operations in an attempt to calm the situation and absorb the pressure from the Americans," Pakistani intelligence "began sending people to us."
"They sent messages to us via some of the Pakistani Jihadist groups that they are comfortable with. ... One of their messengers came to us conveying a message for us from the intelligence leadership ... saying that they wanted to talk to us as Al Qaeda."
Mahmud asks bin Laden whether the "Pakistanis are serious or are they just playing with us?"
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the release of the documents followed a rigorous review by US government agencies as required by the 2014 Intelligence Authorization Act.
The documents can be read here: http://www.dni.gov/index.php/resources/bin-laden-bookshelf
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