Bin Laden's hand-written journal seized in raid

WASHINGTON — Deep in hiding, his terror organization becoming battered and fragmented, Osama bin Laden kept pressing followers to find new ways to hit the U.S., officials say, citing his private journal and other documents recovered in last week's raid.

Strike smaller cities, bin Laden suggested. Target trains as well as planes. Above all, kill as many Americans as possible in a single attack.

Though he was out of the public eye and al Qaeda seemed to be weakening, bin Laden never yielded control of his worldwide organization, U.S. officials said Wednesday. His personal, handwritten journal and his massive collection of computer files reveal his hand at work in every recent major al Qaeda threat, including plots in Europe last year that had travelers and embassies on high alert, two officials said.

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They described the intelligence to The Associated Press only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about what was found in bin Laden's hideout. Analysts are continuing to review the documents.

The information shatters the government's conventional thinking about bin Laden, who had been regarded for years as mostly an inspirational figurehead whose years in hiding made him too marginalized to maintain operational control of the organization he founded.

Instead, bin Laden was communicating from his walled compound in Pakistan with al Qaeda's offshoots, including the Yemen branch that has emerged as the leading threat to the United States, the documents indicate. Though there is no evidence yet that he was directly behind the attempted Christmas Day 2009 bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner or the nearly successful attack on cargo planes heading for Chicago and Philadelphia, it's now clear that they bear some of bin Laden's hallmarks.

Don't limit attacks to New York City, he said in his writings. Consider other areas such as Los Angeles or smaller cities. Spread out the targets.

In one particularly macabre bit of mathematics, bin Laden's writings show him musing over just how many Americans he must kill to force the U.S. to withdraw from the Arab world. He concludes that small attacks had not been enough. He tells his disciples that only a body count of thousands, something on the scale of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, would shift U.S. policy.

He also schemed about ways to sow political dissent in Washington and play political figures against one another, officials said.

The communications were in missives sent via plug-in computer storage devices called flash drives. The devices were ferried to bin Laden's compound by couriers, a process that is slow but exceptionally difficult to track.

Intelligence officials have not identified any new planned targets or plots in their initial analysis of the 100 or so flash drives and five computers that Navy SEALs hauled away after killing bin Laden. Last week, the FBI and Homeland Security Department warned law enforcement officials nationwide to be on alert for possible attacks against trains, though officials said there was no specific plot.

Officials have not yet seen any indication that bin Laden had the ability to coordinate timing of attacks across the various al Qaeda affiliates in Pakistan, Yemen, Algeria, Iraq and Somalia, and it is also unclear from bin Laden's documents how much the affiliate groups relied on his guidance. The Yemen group, for instance, has embraced the smaller-scale attacks that bin Laden's writings indicate he regarded as unsuccessful. The Yemen branch had already surpassed his central operation as al Qaeda's leading fundraising, propaganda and operational arm.

Al Qaeda has not named bin Laden's successor, but all indications point to his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri. The question is whether al-Zawahri, or anyone, has the ability to keep so many disparate groups under the al Qaeda banner. The groups in Somalia and Algeria, for instance, have very different goals focused on local grievances. Without bin Laden to serve as their shepherd, it's possible al Qaeda will further fragment.

[Jhihmoac]

I don't think he's going to find "72 Virgins" where he is....

[ALBrainTrust13]

WHY IS THIS STUFF LEAKING OUT? WE DON'T NEED TO KNOW WHAT THEY FOUND....KEEP IT SECRET...TRACK THEM DOWN....KILL THEM ALL!

THEN, WHEN YOU ARE DONE, TELL US ABOUT IT.

[Faith_In_Jesus]

Attention!

Jesus H. Christ! What else is new: Bomb big cities and then bomb small ones, blow up trains and then planes?

Sometimes I think that the C.I.A. is feeding us a good dose of crap just to get more money to scare us even better.

The terrorists want our attention. Ben Laden said it best: "The only way to get the U.S.'s attention is to kill a whole bunch of people."
The problem with that statement and the whole ideology of terrorist organizations like Al Qaida is that once they get the victims attention, these are mad like hell.

No what we have to do is before people are killed on both sides we should give the terrorists they attention they need. I know, some will say: But for the love of God they are terrorists! Then it is time to respond: Jesus was a terrorist, Mao was a terrorist, Che was a terrorist, Chris Rock was a comedian (Ha!Ha!). It is all in the name calling...

So as a conclusion, the terrorists have our attention, so there must surely be a way for us and them to meet half way. Bombs and people's deaths are not the solution; the world grieves for a week or two (or as long as the news reports it) and then only rebuilds and makes more babies.
No, it is time to compromise (Israel and Palestine will do it this year) and become builders of peaceful Nations allied to the Almighty One...

Amen to that!

[lopezf11]

Surprisingly, Bin Laden's last entry is as follows (it was precient) "One King's dream, he was able to Barack us. . ."

[rwsmith29456]

Of course he's going to take as much credit as possible. If the operation had gone bad like the one in Iran, it would have been some underling that would be blamed.

[netjunkie1]

I'm more concerned that the tail of the stealthy helicopter is being detailed for Chinese advances.
Shouldn't we be dropping bombs on an embassy' again by accident?
Remember the downed f117 in Kosovo?
China's government is just dedicated to destroying our way of life....that's all....

[PJ2011]

shouldn't Pakistan be held accountable for sharing the "tail"
with the people who own this country, the Chinese!!!!Why.......

[dnamj]

OK... So why didn't any of these attacks happen? Could it be that once they get here they find out that Americans are not really all that bad?

[ctbeckyw]

In that he left so much behind, just shows his arrogance. Since he escaped Tora Bora, he thought he was invincible. He simply did not learn the we (the US) don't give up.

[aintfakin]

maybe we will learn of Bush-Bin Laden family ties

[dnamj]

you think that info would be leaked? seriously?

[magnus4000]

If there was anything like that in there it would already have been shouted in banner headlines by every breathless left leaning blogger on planet earth.

[diamruby]

He was a coward, hiding behind womens skirts,brainwashing others into killing so he could obtain more power & greed. He & his like are worse than animals & should be eliminated off the face of this planet.