Mark Memmott – (NPR) – May 3, 2012 – Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was frustrated with “regional jihadi groups and his seeming inability to exercise control over their actions” in the last few years before he was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs.
That’s “the most compelling story to be told,” according to an analysis of some documents seized from bin Laden’s Pakistani compound in the May 2011 raid that ended with his death, West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center reported today.
That center this morning posted online its analysis and a selection from the 6,000 or so pages of material taken from bin Laden’s compound.
As we reported earlier, CNN’s Peter Bergen, who reviewed several hundred of the documents while researching his book Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden From 9/11 to Abbottabad, says they:
“Paint a portrait of a man who was simultaneously an inveterate micromanager but was also someone almost delusional in his belief that his organization could still force a change in American foreign policies in the Muslim world if only he could get another big attack organized inside the United States — something some of his subordinates were quite skeptical about given al-Qaida’s diminished capabilities.”
We’re updating this post with highlights and materials. (Click HERE for original article) (Click HERE for the report PDF) (Click HERE for link to released documents)
