Osama letters: Getting into the dark mind of 'the Sheikh'

Washington: So Osama bin Laden and his association of terrorists didn’t think much of Fox News and Vice-President Joseph Biden. Ouch. Journalists are poring over the 17 documents released by the US government’s Combating Terrorism Centre to look for hidden clues and connections. Perhaps a new detail missed by trained counter-terrorism officers who have read them dry? Maybe a link to the ISI? Tantalising as it may be to dream of the possibility of nailing something or someone, the 17 documents made public from the 6,000 or so seized from bin Laden’s strange, big house in Abbottabad are relatively anodyne. No “live” clues here. [caption id=“attachment_298528” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Slain al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. AP”]  [/caption] Obviously, any clues of actionable intelligence won’t be revealed. And any evidence of official Pakistani connivance might be more handy as a bargaining chip for the US to force a “reset” in relations. Give the Pakistani establishment yet another chance to clean house. But there are some interesting details, which offer a window into the dark mind of the “Sheikh” who lived in Pakistan with three wives and many children, plotting jihad and using managerial techniques like a CEO. His youngest wife delivered two children in a government hospital. Bin who? OBL liked writing copious memos to his hordes. He desperately wanted a big show to announce his comeback. Target President Obama or Gen David Petraeus on one of their visits to Afghanistan, he exhorted his supporters. If Obama is killed, Biden would take over as president as is the norm and that would be just fine since he “is totally unprepared” for the job, Osama thought. A crisis would follow, serving his forces of chaos. Not a flattering portrait of Biden, but then the US vice president is a favourite of late night comics for his gaffes and tendency to use the F word. What is interesting in real life is that Biden was one of the senior officials who advised Obama against ordering the risky raid on bin Laden. Biden thought more evidence was needed. It is Obama’s better judgment and good luck that he ignored his vice president and now lives to enjoy the endless mileage his re-election campaign draws from the raid. To say nothing of the immortality in history books as the president who avenged the killing of 3,000 Americans. On to the terrorists’ take on Fox News, the channel we love to hate for its daily crescendos of rightwing outrage against (mostly) imagined slights and its glorification of venal crazies. Turns out Fox was on radar of OBL’s “media managers” but for somewhat unflattering reasons. As OBL plotted exploitation of the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, he consulted his media team. One al-Qaeda “media specialist”, believed to be an American named Adam Gadahn, gave him a white paper on the US media scene. “From the professional point of view, they are all on one level – except (Fox News) channel which falls into the abyss as you know, and lacks neutrality too,” wrote Gadahn with an air of confidence. Giving his assessment of CNN (too pro-government), MSNBC (good, but fired two top journalists), and ABC (“could be the best channel as far as we are concerned” … “The channel is still proud of its interview with the Sheikh”) he ended with a damning verdict on Fox: “As for Fox News, let her die in her anger.” OBL himself had set his eyes on Robert Fisk, the famous Middle East correspondent for The Independent. He suggested reaching out to Fisk, known for his sympathetic coverage of the Palestinian issue. Osama, it appears, was quite a micromanager, telling would-be terrorists they must eat a full meal and fill the gas tank before setting off to avoid stopping at petrol stations where the “enemy” might be lurking. He even asked African followers to plant trees that would one day both give cover from air surveillance and shade from the sun. In the end, he knew his organisation was weakening because of the incessant campaign by the US and its allies. The al-Qaeda brand name was no longer as great because of the number of Muslims killed in the name of his jihad. But he imagined another spectacular attack would turn it all around. Just for Men had turned his beard black. You can a word cloud with translations of Osama documents here.