Thursday, May 12, 2011

Osama's Journal, Other Docs Show He Was Still Terror Kingpin

More evidence that Osama Bin Laden remained active atop the Al Qaeda terror syndicate is trickling out in what increasingly looks like a concerted effort to play mind games with the fractured Islamist militant group.

Bin Laden's handwritten journal and other documents show the deceased terror leader was in contact with Al Qaeda cells or individuals not only in Middle East, but as far away as London, calling on them to strike at U.S. railroads on key dates and add Los Angeles to their list of targets.

No specific plots have been discovered, according to reports, but there is still renewed concern.

"The latest trove of intelligence should be a wake-up call to Americans that this threat has always been real," Michael Downing, commanding officer of the Los Angeles Police Department's counter-terrorism and special operations bureau, told The Los Angeles Times.

Bin Laden saved his communications on small, easy-to-circulate flash drives that couriers would get in the hands of Al Qaeda members. The Navy Seals who raided his Abbottabad compound snatched handfuls of the thumb-sized drives. Arab language experts and intelligence officials are now combing over the information cache.

"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," the Associated Press reported.

"He concludes that the smaller, scattered attacks since the 9/11 attacks had not been enough. He tells his disciples that only a body count of thousands, something on the scale of 9/11, would shift U.S. policy," AP reported.

The unprecedented leak of what routinely would be considered classified information is part of what has become an almost daily distribution of information meant to inform the free world of Bin Laden's thoughts and plans and the potential threats they posed.

There is also a degree of psychological warfare at play. The leaks might be getting into the heads of Al Qaeda operatives, some of whom have to be wondering if bin Laden included enough details in his records to put terrorist-hunters on their trail. Counterterrorism experts think it could cause Al Qaeda to slip up.

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