Osama secret files reveals Al Qaeda leader's message: Forget Islamic state

May 20, 2015 22:45

In his final years hiding in a compound in Pakistan, Osama bin Laden was a man who at once showed great love and interest in his own family while he coldly drew up quixotic plans for mass casualty attacks on Americans, according to documents seized by Navy SEALs the night he was killed.

On Wednesday morning, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence released an unprecedented number of documents from what US officials have described as the treasure-trove picked up by the SEALs at bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011.

Totaling 103 documents, they include the largest repository of correspondence ever released between members of bin Laden's immediate family and significant communications between bin Laden and other leaders of Al Qaeda as well as Al Qaeda's communications with terrorist groups around the Muslim world.

Also released was a list of bin Laden's massive digital collection of English-language books, think tank reports and US government documents, numbering 266 in total.

To the end bin Laden remained obsessed with attacking Americans. In an undated letter he told jihadist militants in North Africa that they should stop "insisting on the formation of an Islamic state" and instead attack US embassies in Sierra Leone and Togo and American oil companies. Bin Laden offered similar advice to the Al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, telling it to avoid targeting Yemeni police and military targets and instead prioritize attacks on American targets.

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