The United States on Thursday released 17 documents found at Osama Bin Laden’s compound in the raid that killed the Al-Qaeda chief a year ago. The White House allowed the declassified documents to be published online by the Combating Terrorism Center at the West Point military academy. The papers include letters or draft letters dated from September 2006 to April 2011, a total of 175 pages in the original Arabic.
The documents reveal internal correspondence inside the Al-Qaeda network, including letters authored by Bin Laden and leaders of the group’s affiliate in Yemen and fellow militants in Somalia and Pakistan.
In a May 2010 letter published online Thursday, bin Laden worried about al Qaeda attacks causing “unnecessary” Muslim casualties and advised his deputies to take more care to spare civilian lives.
The al Qaeda chief underscores “the need to cancel other attacks due to the possible and unnecessary civilian casualties” in Muslim countries, according to the letter. “We ask every emir in the regions to be extremely keen and focused on controlling the military work,” he wrote, referring to al Qaeda attacks.
Bin Laden expressed concern about his network losing the sympathy of Muslims and described operations killing Muslims as “mistakes,” adding that 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.
Also, an analysis of the documents by Reuters suggests that bin Laden was not the “puppet master” of jihadi groups around the world and complained of what he called their “incompetence”.
“On the basis of the 17 declassified documents, Bin Ladin was not, as many thought, the puppet master pulling the strings that set in motion jihadi groups around the world,” a report on the documents by the Combating Terrorism Center said. “Bin Ladin was burdened by what he saw as their incompetence.”
The center spells bin Laden’s name as Bin Ladin.
The report said the al Qaeda leader, who was behind the Sept. 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks in New York, “was unimpressed by the recent trend of American populist jihad.”