Good thing Bin Laden is swimming with the fishes.
Bin Laden's Last Plans
By David Ignatius
- May 6, 2015
WASHINGTON -- In the months before his death in May 2011, Osama bin Laden was discussing new gambits -- from a truce with Pakistan to opportunistic alliances with jihadist groups spawned by the Arab Spring -- so that he could focus on tipping what he called "the balance of fear" with his main enemy, the United States.
This picture of a cagey, quirky bin Laden, directing a terrorist "great game" from his secret lair in Abbottabad, Pakistan, emerges in eight documents released a few months ago. They were declassified to bolster the U.S. government's case against a Pakistani named Abid Naseer but received scant media attention. Naseer was convicted in March for his role in an alleged al-Qaeda plot to bomb the New York subway. The documents deserve a closer look.
The new bin Laden files show that he recognized the opportunities that Arab upheaval offered for al-Qaeda and was moving to exploit them. Al-Qaeda's main leadership had been rocked by America's drone war, but the group still had big ambitions, even at a time when U.S. officials said it was buckling.
The bin Laden of these documents is ruminating about big strategic ideas, but also micromanaging personnel decisions and counterespionage tactics. In one passage, he admonishes his deputy, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, to pay more attention to climate change that might affect Somalia, a key recruiting area; in another, he proposes sending al-Qaeda recruits to universities to master advanced technologies that could benefit the terror group.
Continue reading at:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/05/06/bin_ladens_last_plans_12650
Bin Laden's Last Plans
By David Ignatius
- May 6, 2015WASHINGTON -- In the months before his death in May 2011, Osama bin Laden was discussing new gambits -- from a truce with Pakistan to opportunistic alliances with jihadist groups spawned by the Arab Spring -- so that he could focus on tipping what he called "the balance of fear" with his main enemy, the United States.
This picture of a cagey, quirky bin Laden, directing a terrorist "great game" from his secret lair in Abbottabad, Pakistan, emerges in eight documents released a few months ago. They were declassified to bolster the U.S. government's case against a Pakistani named Abid Naseer but received scant media attention. Naseer was convicted in March for his role in an alleged al-Qaeda plot to bomb the New York subway. The documents deserve a closer look.
The new bin Laden files show that he recognized the opportunities that Arab upheaval offered for al-Qaeda and was moving to exploit them. Al-Qaeda's main leadership had been rocked by America's drone war, but the group still had big ambitions, even at a time when U.S. officials said it was buckling.
The bin Laden of these documents is ruminating about big strategic ideas, but also micromanaging personnel decisions and counterespionage tactics. In one passage, he admonishes his deputy, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, to pay more attention to climate change that might affect Somalia, a key recruiting area; in another, he proposes sending al-Qaeda recruits to universities to master advanced technologies that could benefit the terror group.
Continue reading at:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/05/06/bin_ladens_last_plans_12650
