WASHINGTON, May 3 (Reuters) – Al Qaeda leader Osama bin
Laden was not the “puppet master” of jihadi groups around the
world and was burdened by what he saw as their “incompetence,”
according to an analysis of documents seized from his hideout in
Pakistan.
The Combating Terrorism Center, a privately funded research
center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, posted on its
website on Thursday some declassified documents taken in the
raid on bin Laden’s house in Abbottabad in which he was killed
by U.S. forces a year ago. (http:www.ctc.usma.edu)
“On the basis of the 17 declassified documents, Bin Ladin
was not, as many thought, the puppet master pulling the strings
that set in motion jihadi groups around the world,” a report on
the documents by the Combating Terrorism Center said. “Bin Ladin
was burdened by what he saw as their incompetence.”
The center spells bin Laden’s name as Bin Ladin.
The al Qaeda leader who was the subject of an intense
manhunt after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks “was unimpressed by
the recent trend of American populist jihad” and did not hold
American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in high esteem, the report
said. Awlaki was killed in Yemen by a U.S. drone strike last
year.
Awlaki is mentioned in one letter, assessed to be from bin
Laden who writes, as translated: “I hope that he be informed of
us still needing more information from the battlefield in Yemen,
so that it is feasible for us, with the help of God, to make the
most appropriate decision to either escalate or calm down.”
(Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by Jackie Frank)
