Osama bin Laden was a paranoid leader at loggerheads with his own deputies over al-Qaeda’s terror priorities, a treasure trove of secret messages taken on the night of his death has revealed.
Documents seized by special forces during the raid in May last year showed that before being killed by an elite team of US Navy Seals in his Abbottabad hideout, bin Laden was desperate for a major strike on American soil because he felt the reputation of al-Qaeda had been destroyed.
The correspondence, seen by The Washington Post, also included a 48-page directive to one of his senior lieutenants laying out his strategy to improve the terrorist network’s image, which he feared had become tarnished by the deaths of so many Muslims.
Bin Laden wanted “every effort that could be spent on attacks in America” and called for the recruitment of potential terrorists who could live and operate in America.
The seized reports also suggest that bin Laden was plotting an attack on General David Petraeus, commander of US forces in Afghanistan.
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“As for Petraeus, he is the man of the hour ,” read a document.
“Killing him would alter the war’s path” in Afghanistan.
However, he was at the helm of an organisation riddled with internal wrangling, according to the reports. Ayman al-Zawahiri, then bin Laden’s deputy and now his successor, instead advocated attacks on US forces in the field which were easier to orchestrate.
It also emerged that his plans to assassinate President Obama involved ordering a terrorist cell to shoot down the presidential aircraft, Air Force One – because, he told al-Qaeda associates, Joe Biden, the US Vice-President, was ill-prepared to assume control of the White House.
“Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make Biden take over the presidency,” one message read.
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“Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the US into a crisis.”
Bin Laden also appears to have taken a surprisingly active role in al-Qaeda’s management. Fearing that he was being marginalised, he requested annual reports from his regional leaders. He wanted to introduce a system for local emirs to serve two-year terms and discussed the need for “deputy emirs” and “acting emirs” to improve the smooth running of his network.
He suggested re-branding the terrorist network with a new name and apologising for the spilling of “Muslim blood” during attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan.