Washington (CNN) : Newly released documents written by Osama bin Laden include the late terrorist's will, personal letters and warnings to countries including the United States.
The
documents show that he claimed to still be worth millions of dollars
even as he struggled to remain relevant while his al Qaeda network
splintered.
The Office of the Director
of National Intelligence released the newly declassified documents
Tuesday. They were recovered during the May 2011 raid on bin Laden's
compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in which he was killed.
His will, dated from the 1990s, was just one of many documents revealing that death never seemed to be far from bin Laden's mind.
In
it, bin Laden said that he had $29 million in Sudan that he wished to
be used on "jihad for the sake of Allah," while also directing a small
portion of that figure to various family members. The whereabouts of the
money are unknown.
And
in a separate letter, from 2008, he wrote, "If I am to be killed, pray
for me a lot and give continuous charities in my name."
Bin
Laden's media savvy was also on display. In an undated letter where he
wrote about the upcoming 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks,
he sought something of a media blitz to highlight his belief that the
attacks were the precursor to the global financial crisis of the late
2000s.
He recommended that his
lieutenants reach out to CBS, other unnamed American networks and the
Islamabad bureau chief of Al Jazeera to pitch some type of anniversary
special, recommending Robert Fisk, a journalist who had previously
interviewed him, to moderate.
The
financial hardships of al Qaeda also come through in the documents, with
bin Laden suggesting a scheme that would extort money from other
countries, Mauritania among them, in exchange for a promise from al
Qaeda not to attack them in the future.
Bin
Laden did express concern about attacking Iran and Turkey, however,
because much of al Qaeda's money traveled through those countries on its
way to members of the organization.
Interestingly,
bin Laden also appears to have considered moving from Abbottabad in
January 2011, some five months before his eventual death, but apparently
not because he believed he was being tracked.
And
there were also apparent differences with the current ISIS philosophy
of establishing a caliphate as a base of operations. Bin Laden was
reluctant to pursue a caliphate because of the difficulty in garnering
popular support for it, along with the day-to-day burden of governing.
But his concerns were often more mundane, concerning the education of certain relatives and medical treatment of others.
In
a letter dated less than three months before his death, bin Laden wrote
that he preferred a female relative to visit a female doctor to
describe an unidentified set of symptoms and said an x-ray or ultrasound
should be obtained if the symptoms persisted.
In
another letter, bin Laden expressed his gratitude that a brother of his
was able to visit a dentist -- something the most-hunted man in the
world was unable to do.
The more than
100 documents put out Tuesday are the second tranche to be released by
the intelligence community and follow a rigorous interagency review
process to determine which documents are ready for release to the public
after being declassified and translated from Arabic.
"It's
important that the documents collected at bin Laden's compound be made
available to the public," Brian Hale, director of public affairs for the
Director of National Intelligence said in a press release accompanying
the documents.
"This was no easy feat as members of the task force dedicated themselves over a long period of time," he said.
The
latest documents also shine a light on bin Laden's concern over a
growing divide between al Qaeda and its affiliates and his efforts to
present the terror network as a unified organization.
In
a letter to the people of Libya, bin Laden praised the overthrow of the
"tyrant" Moammer Gadhafi but called for the country to unite under the
banner of Islamic law, while warning the United States and other
countries to stay out of Libya.
And in a
different letter addressed to "Muslim brothers and sisters," bin Laden
wrote of the importance of avoiding indiscriminate Muslim deaths in
jihadi operations and urged jihadis to be judicious in their use of
human shields during operations.
He
also wrote directly to the American people, telling them after President
Barack Obama assumed office that attacks against the United States
would persist as long as America supported Israel.
The
intelligence community expects to release additional documents from the
raid later this year after they have been declassified.
source:cnn
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