Most of the Osama bin Laden letters which were released, May 03, by West Point Combating Terrorism Centre in the US, give a quite different perspective about the writer himself.
Osama bin Laden appears to be quite frustrated, disillusioned and disheartened with the blows Al-Qaeda was receiving in the battlefield. He appears to be quite de-linked with the world politics when he bases his views on simplistic assumptions.
One would just laugh on the proposal to his comrades to target President Obama and Gen Petraeus while sparing Vice President Joe Biden, Robert Gates and Admiral Mullen as killing of Obama and Petraeus will change the war’s path in Afghanistan (OBL was of the view that Biden and his other generals were not prepared to take over the task in absence of Obama).
Osama bin Laden appears to be frustrated with the activities of jihadist outfits which were painting them as bloodthirsty monsters. He was quite critical of jihadists attacking civilians, mosques, marketplaces, schools as such attacks are proving quite counter-productive among common Muslims. He also reemphasised the rules to be adhered to by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan for kidnappings for ransom.
But all these selected seventeen letters, out of hundreds of documents yet to be translated and published, show that OBL, as an old man lying in isolation and cut-off by electronic communication, has become quite irrelevant to those running Al-Qaeda in the field.
Obviously, jihadist outfits were not ready to listen to him. Regardless of his instructions, jihadists continued to attack civilians, mosques, shrines, marketplaces, schools and hospitals all over Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the Muslim world. Kidnapping for ransom in Karachi and other prosperous cities continued unabated.
Americans might have killed Osama bin Laden to declare closing of 9/11 file but Al-Qaeda has given birth to numerous ideological splinter jihadist groups. These ruthless groups are not under a central command but working at a local level; it is more difficult to track and eliminate them. The threat is far from over.
MASOOD KHAN
Saudi Arabia