Kimberly Dozier of the Associated Press is reporting that Osama bin Laden remained the driving force behind every recent al-Qaida terror plot, U.S. officials say, citing his private journal and other documents recovered in last week's raid.
Before his death, bin Laden dispensed chilling advice to the leaders of al-Qaida groups from Yemen to London: Hit Los Angeles, not just New York, he wrote. Target trains as well as planes. If possible, strike on significant dates, such as the Fourth of July and the upcoming 10th anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Above all, he urged, kill more Americans in a single attack to drive them from the Arab world.
Bin Laden's written words show that counterterrorist officials worldwide underestimated how key he remained to running the organization, shattering the conventional thinking that he had been reduced through isolation to being an inspirational figurehead, U.S. officials said Wednesday.
His personal, handwritten journal and his massive collection of computer files show that he helped plan every recent major al-Qaida threat the U.S. is aware of, including plots in Europe last year that had travelers and embassies on high alert, two officials said. So far, no new plots have been uncovered in bin Laden's writings, but intelligence officials say that it will take weeks, if not months, to go through them.
Speaking under the condition of anonymity, intelligence officials say that bin Laden was aware of counterterrorist activities, urging his followers to attack cities other than New York like Los Angeles, smaller cities and trains to get the West out of Arab countries.
Really? Did bin Laden really think that bombing the World Trade Center would keep the West out of Arab countries? In fact, it did just the opposite. Targeting other cities and working to "terrorize" Americans will continue to keep the West in Arab countries.
Perhaps bin Laden wasn't as swift as people give him credit for being. Clearly he had a ax to grind and used his followers to help carry it out. Whatever the case, his thoughts are in the hands of our intelligence officers, and that can only be good for our country.
Read more at the Star Tribune.
In other news: Bernard Hopkins Questions Donovan McNabb's Blackness.
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