by Jack
This just released, 17 documents written by Osama bin Laden are now online and can be downloaded for viewing. You get a surprising view of Al Qeada and Iran, or Al Qeada affiliates and bin Laden.
Here is the link: http://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/letters-from-abbottabad-bin-ladin-sidelined
Excerpt: The 17 documents consist of electronic letters or draft letters, totaling 175 pages in the original Arabic and 197 pages in the English translation. The earliest letter is dated September 2006 and the latest April 2011. These internal al-Qa`ida communications were authored by several leaders, including Usama bin Ladin, `Atiyya `Abd al-Rahman, Abu Yahya al-Libi and the American Adam Gadahn, as well as several unknown individuals who were either affiliated with the group or wrote to offer it advice. Other recognizable personalities who feature in the letters either as authors, recipients or points of conversation include Mukhtar Abu al-Zubayr, leader of the Somali militant group Harakat al-Shabab al-Mujahidin; Nasir al-Wuhayshi (Abu Basir), leader of the Yemen-based al-Qa`ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP); Anwar al-`Awlaqi; and Hakimullah Mahsud, leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Some of the letters are incomplete and/or are missing their dates, and not all of the letters explicitly attribute their author(s) and/or indicate to whom they are addressed. Given that they are all electronic documents either saved on thumb drives, memory cards or the hard drive of Bin Ladin’s computer, except for the letters addressed to Bin Ladin, it cannot be ascertained whether any of these letters actually reached their intended destinations.
Don’t you think it sort of odd that we pitched Bin Laden’s body into the sea?
I mean, it seems to me that, the rules of warfare being what they are, and the circumstances being … extraordinary … but us wanting to seeming comply with rules as best we may, in the circumstances … the identity and condition of the body should have been thoroughly documented, and the body released to the family.
But we heaved it overboard. Very odd, that.
Libby…We did not want to offend Islamic culture and this is why we gave him a proper send off. We also didn’t want his body to become a rallying point for his followers. We could envision that bin Laden might have been entombed in shrine and his radical idol worshipers from all over the world would have come to see his grave. It would have become a great recruiting tool for Al Qaeda.
Funny this never entered your mind? It’s kinda obvious.