Revealed: How bin Laden plotted to bring down Air Force One to kill Obama

A fascinating set of writings from Osama bin Laden's final hideout made public today reveal the al Qaeda boss' growing anger with his underlings - and the group's shocking plan to assassinate President Obama. 

The documents were part of the 'treasure trove' of material seized by U.S. Navy SEALs during the raid of bin Laden's compound in Abottabad, Pakistan in which the terror leader was killed. The documents were posted online today by the U.S. Army's Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. The center's 62-page report details 17 newly declassified documents from the terror leader, dated between September 2006 and April 2011, just before his death.

 Bin Laden wished especially to target airplanes carrying Gen David Petraeus and even President Obama, reasoning that an assassination would elevate an 'totally unprepared' Vice President Joe Biden into the presidency and plunge the U.S. into crisis. The terror leader writes: 'I asked Shaykh Sa'id, Allah have mercy on his soul, to task brother Ilyas to prepare two groups - one in Pakistan and the other in the Bagram area of Afghanistan - with the mission of anticipating and spotting the visits of Obama or Petraeus to Afghanistan or Pakistan to target the aircraft of either one of them. 

'The reason for concentrating on them is that Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make Biden take over the presidency for the remainder of the term, as it is the norm over there. Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the U.S. into a crisis. 'As for Petraeus, he is the man of the hour in this last year of the war, and killing him would alter the war's path.' The revelations come two days after Obama made a surprise visit to the region, where Obama appeared at Bagram Air Force Base to declare that a defeat of al Qaeda is 'now within our reach.' 

 One selection of documents - written last year - describe al Qaeda's campaign ahead of the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, and the best American media channels to 'deliver our messages.' In particular, the notorious terror group expresses its disdain for Fox News, says CNN is working for the U.S. government and ABC is 'all right.' The letters, purportedly written by al Qaeda operative and spokesman Adam Gadahn, say: 'From the professional point of view, they are all on one level except (Fox News) channel which falls into the abyss as you know, and lacks neutrality too.' 

 'As for the neutrality of CNN in English, it seems to be in cooperation with the government more than the others.' It goes on: 'ABC channel is all right; actually it could be one of the best channels, as far as we are concerned. It is interested in al Qaeda issues, particularly the journalist Brian Ross, who is specialized in terrorism. 'The channel is still proud for its interview with [bin Laden]. It also broadcasted excerpts from a speech of [Gadahn] on the fourth anniversary, it also published most of that text on its site on the internet.'

Watching the raid: A selection of documents seized in the raid, pictured being watched here by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, were posted online today

Later, Gadahn says he is open to sending materials to all of the networks except Fox News, saying 'let her die in her anger.' In other letters written by bin Laden himself, he fretted about dysfunction in his terrorist network and the loss of trust from Muslims he wished to incite against their government and the West. In a 2010 missive, the terror boss wrote: 'I plan to release a statement [announcing] that we are starting a new phase to correct [the mistakes] we made; in doing so, we shall reclaim, God willing, the trust of a large segment of those who lost their trust in the jihadis.'

 While bin Laden saw al Qaeda's standing with Muslim populations at risk of crumbling, the documents show he remained focused on attacking Americans and coming up with plots, however improbable, to kill U.S. leaders. The correspondence shows a leader revered but sometimes ignored by field commanders, who dismissed him as out of touch even as he urged them to keep attacking U.S. targets.

 Gadahn urged bin Laden to disassociate their organization from the acts of al Qaeda's spinoff operation in Iraq, known as AQI, and bin Laden told other terrorist groups not to repeat AQI's mistakes. The correspondence includes letters by then-second-in-command Abu Yahya al-Libi, taking Pakistani offshoot Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan to task over its indiscriminate attacks on Muslims. The al Qaeda leadership "threatened to take public measures unless we see from you serious and immediate practical and clear steps towards reforming [your ways]and dissociating yourself from these vile mistakes that violate Islamic Law," al-Libi wrote.

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bin Laden raid most important day in White House – Obama

US President Barack Obama described the lonely decision he made to mount a Navy SEAL raid to kill Osama bin Laden and called the daring escapade the “most important single day” of his tenure.

In an interview to be broadcast later Wednesday, Obama talked about the nerve jangling moments he endured as he watched the operation, the cloak of secrecy that enveloped it and the moment he saw a photo of the dead Al-Qaeda leader.

“I did choose the risk,” Obama told NBC News anchor Brian Williams, in the latest episode of a nearly week-long commemoration of the anniversary of the bin Laden killing.

Obama spoke to Williams in the secure Situation Room in the White House basement, where top officials gathered to watch the raid unfold on a screen, and which was the site of an iconic photograph seen around the world.

Republicans have accused Obama of inappropriately celebrating the anniversary as he seeks to bolster his standing ahead of his reelection fight.

He spoke about how the operation was planned and conducted in utmost secrecy, and how he did not share knowledge of it with many of his staff, or even First Lady Michelle Obama.

President Barack Obama: Their voices have been heard and Egypt will never be the same

“Even a breath of this in the press could have chased bin Laden away,” Obama said. “We didn’t know at that point whether there might be underground tunnels coming out of that compound that would allow him to escape,” he said.

Other top officials told how Obama solicited final recommendations about the operation, before going away to make a final decision himself on whether to move on bin Laden’s suspect hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

“It was never contentious because I think everybody understood both the pros and cons of the action,” Obama said in the interview to be broadcast a day after he made a secretive trip to Afghanistan on the bin Laden anniversary.

“People who were advocating action understood that if this did not work, if we proved to be wrong, there would be severe geopolitical consequences.

“Most importantly, we might be putting our brave Navy SEALs in danger.”

The president said he collected the conflicting recommendations of his war cabinet before going back to the White House residence to have dinner with his family and retire to his study.

“Well, there is no doubt that you don’t sleep as much that evening as you do on a normal night,” he said. “I stayed up late and I woke up early.”

The next day, he told his subordinates that he had decided to go ahead with the raid.

“You have some serenity in knowing that you’ve made the best possible decision that you can and, you know, in that situation you just, you do some praying,” Obama said.

Members of the war cabinet discussed the moment in interviews when they saw one of the helicopters carrying the Navy SEALS drop over the wall of the compound in a crash landing.

“That helicopter didn’t make it to the right spot and everyone went, like, ‘Whoa,’” said Vice President Joe Biden, in an interview to be broadcast on the NBC “Rock Center.”

Obama said that the only thing he was thinking about was “I really want to get those guys back home safe.”

“I want to make sure that the decision I’ve made has not resulted in them putting their lives at risk in vain, and if I got that part of it right, if I could look myself in the mirror and say as commander in chief I made a good call.”

After the SEAL team flew back to a base in Afghanistan, they transmitted photos of the dead Al-Qaeda leader, clearly showing he had been shot in the head during the raid.

“I think it’s wrong to say that I did a high five, because you have a picture of a dead body and, you know, there’s I think regardless of who it is, you always have to be sober about death.

“But understanding the satisfaction for the American people, what it would mean for 9/11 families … I think there was a deep-seated satisfaction for the country at that moment.”

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Bin Laden's final days -- big plans, deep fears

Tapping away at his computer in the study of the suburban compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that he called home for the last years of his life, Osama bin Laden wrote memos urging his followers to continue to try to attack the United States, suggesting, for instance, they mount assassination attempts against President Obama and Gen. David Petraeus.

While he urged his organization on to attack America, bin Laden was also keenly aware that al Qaeda was in deep trouble because of the campaign of CIA drone strikes in Pakistan and also because the brutal tactics of his followers had alienated many Muslims.

According to senior Obama administration officials who have reviewed the "treasure trove" of the thousands of documents that were picked up by the U.S. Navy SEALs from bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, the leaders of al Qaeda understood that the group they led was "beleaguered." CNN was given a briefing this week by senior administration officials who have been analyzing the documents.

Peter Bergen

Bin Laden wrote a 48-page memo to a deputy in October 2010 that surveyed the state of his organization. He was particularly concerned that al Qaeda's longtime sanctuary in Waziristan in Pakistan's tribal areas was now too dangerous because of the campaign of American drone strikes there that had picked off many of his key lieutenants.

According to a count by the New America Foundation, the CIA launched a record number of 118 strikes into the tribal regions during 2010, the year bin Laden wrote this memo.

Bin Laden advised his followers not to move around the tribal regions except on overcast days when America's all-seeing satellites and drones would not have as good coverage of the area.

He also urged his followers to depart the tribal regions for the remote Afghan provinces of Ghazni, Zabul and, in particular, Kunar, pointing out that the high mountains and dense forests of Kunar provided especially good protection from prying American eyes.

Bin Laden fretted about his 20-year-old son, Hamza, who had recently been released from house arrest in Iran, instructing his deputy to tell his son to move out of Waziristan. He also provided elaborate instructions about how Hamza might evade the surveillance of the American drones in the tribal regions by meeting members of al Qaeda inside a particular tunnel on the road between the western Pakistani town of Kohat and the city of Peshawar.

During his final days, bin Laden's world was filled with paranoia. He instructed that Hamza should throw out anything he had taken with him from Iran as it might contain some kind of tracking device, and that he should avoid the company of a man who might have ties to the Pakistani intelligence services.

Bin Laden also reminded his deputies that all internal communications should be made by letter rather than by phone or the Internet.

As a result, according to administration officials, bin Laden had to wait for responses to his queries to his deputies that could sometimes take up to two or three months to be delivered -- surely not an efficient way to run any organization.

Bin Laden also advised his lieutenants that when they kidnapped someone they should take many precautions during the negotiating process and also throw away any bags that contained ransom money because they might also contain a tracking device.

The spectacular set of self-inflicted mistakes made by al Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq weighed heavily on the minds of bin Laden and his top advisers. Privately, they criticized the brutal tactics of al Qaeda in Iraq, which had provoked a tribal uprising against al Qaeda that had dealt a large blow to the group's position in Iraq from 2006 onward.

Until the end, bin Laden remained fixated on attacking the United States, prodding his deputy to "nominate one of the qualified brothers to be responsible for a large operation in the U.S."

According to administration officials, bin Laden's number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, pushed back, telling bin Laden it was much more realistic to attack American soldiers in Afghanistan than American civilians in the United States.

Bin Laden did urge his followers to scope out opportunities to attack President Obama or Petraeus while they were in Afghanistan. At the time, Petraeus was the commanding general of NATO soldiers in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden noted snidely that killing Obama would pave the way for Vice President Joe Biden to assume the presidency. The al Qaeda leader said Biden was "totally unprepared" for the job.

Above all, bin Laden constantly fretted about his media image, pointing out to his deputies that "a huge part of the battle is in the media."

For the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, bin Laden wanted his media team to emphasize particularly that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were one of the main reasons for the financial crisis in the United States. (Bin Laden bought his compound in Abbottabad with cash, so presumably he didn't quite understand the dimensions of the subprime mortgage debacle.)

One of his media advisers, who U.S. officials believe to be the American al Qaeda recruit Adam Gadahn, suggested bin Laden take advantage of the 9/11 anniversary in 2011 to record a 'high definition' videotape message that could be given to all the major American news networks, except to Fox News, which Gadahn said "lacks neutrality." It doesn't appear that bin Laden made such a tape.

Administration officials say it is strange that in all the documents recovered at the bin Laden compound there is no mention at all of al Qaeda's plot to use liquid explosives to bring down as many as seven American, British and Canadian passenger planes flying from Heathrow Airport in 2006. If this plot had succeeded it might have rivaled 9/11 as a spectacular attack.

Bin Laden moved into his Abbottabad compound either at the end of 2005 or sometime in 2006 and an administration official says that, perhaps, information about the Heathrow plot "got lost in the move."

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Bin Laden Plot Against Obama Outlined in Documents

The documents include one in which Bin Laden asked his top lieutenant, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, to find out from a Pakistani terrorist named Ilyas Kashmiri “the steps he has taken” toward assassinating Mr. Obama and the top American general in the region. Mr. Kashmiri had long been one of the chief targets of American counterintelligence forces.

That account emerged in a column by David Ignaitius that was published Friday morning on the Web site of The Washington Post. Mr. Ignatius said he had been granted access to translations of the documents from the raid last year that have been declassified and will be made public soon.

It has been known since a few days after the Bin Laden raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, last year that the documents carted off by the Americans included evidence of the Qaeda leader’s desire to assassinate Mr. Obama, who in the end struck first.

But the documents, as quoted by Mr. Ignatius, could provide new insights into Bin Laden’s thinking as his influence and capacity for action were hamstrung by the pressure of the American campaign to find him. In the documents, his wording can be bureaucratic, theological, convoluted, acerbic or quirky. Some directives run for dozens of pages.

Mr. Ignatius quoted documents in which Bin Laden wanted to organize cells in Afghanistan to attack aircraft carrying Mr. Obama and Gen. David H. Petraeus, who was then the top regional military commander and is now director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Bin Laden said one result of the death of the president, whom he called “the head of infidelity,” would be to elevate Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., causing a crisis because he is “totally unprepared,” according to the documents. General Petraeus was “the man of the hour,” Bin Laden said, and his death “would alter the war’s path.”

Evidently, Bin Laden was worried that the deaths of so many innocent Muslims at Al Qaeda’s hands had damaged its reputation. And he mused that the Americans were shying away from the phrase “global war on terror” because it might ring badly in the ears of Muslims. He suggested that to broaden its own appeal to Muslims, Al Qaeda might want to change its name, which means “the Base,” to something like the “Monotheism and Jihad Group.”

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Bin Laden was 'betrayed by one of his jealous wives' who revealed location of his secret Pakistan compound

Osama Bin Laden was betrayed by one of his wives who revealed the location of his Pakistan hideaway because she was jealous of the Al-Qaeda leader's youngest spouse, it was claimed today.

Khairiah Saber, the oldest of his five wives, was motivated by revenge because the aging terrorist was 'bedding' Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sada while she slept in a bedroom on the floor below, according to a Pakistani official.

Retired brigadier Shaukat Qadir, who has investigated the U.S. operation which killed Bin Laden in May last year, also controversially claims that Saber may have been working with Al-Qaeda itself.

He believes word that 'someone very important' was living in Abbottabad got out to the Taliban, Pakistan’s ISI military intelligence service and ultimately the CIA.

Qadir suggests that Al-Qaeda was looking to cash in on the $25m (£16m) bounty on his head. But he said he has no proof.

Pakistan claims it had not been warned about the raid, but Qadir's claims suggest elements in the intelligence service may have been aware.

According to the Sunday Times, it was also said that Bin Laden understood what was happening, but had lost the will to live.

Trouble arose when Saber, the mother of at least five of Bin Laden's sons, showed up at the compound in early 2011.

After 9/11, she spent years under house arrest in Iran until, after her release in 2008, she told Al-Qaeda she wanted to be rejoin her husband, according to Qadir.

He said: 'Nobody really understood why she should want to come back to him. They had lost contact, there was nothing going on between them — he was bedding only Amal.'

The arrival of Saber, a well-educated Saudi in her 60s, was disruptive, particularly for Amal, Bin Laden’s fifth wife, Siham Sabar, and her 24-year-old son, Khalid.

Qadir said: 'In the house everyone is suspicious of her and Khalid questions her, saying, "Why the hell have you come back?"

He doesn't believe Saber had any connection with the CIA, but her arrival in Abbottabad revealed to those hunting Bin Laden that he might be there. 'Who else could have led them there?'

His theories go against the U.S version of events which states that Bin Laden was tracked to his secret compound by following a 'courier' who was his contact with the terrorist organisation.

The picture of bin Laden's family life comes after Qadir was given rare access to transcripts of Pakistani intelligence's interrogation of Amal, who was detained in the raid.

Others in the family, crammed into the three-story villa Abbottabad compound where bin Laden would eventually be killed in a May 2 U.S. raid, were convinced that the eldest wife intended to betray the al-Qaeda leader.

Indeed, the compound where bin Laden lived since mid-2005 was a crowded place, with 28 residents — including bin Laden, his three wives, eight of his children and five of his grandchildren.

The bin Laden children ranged in age from his 24-year-old son Khaled, who was killed in the raid, to a three-year-old born during their time in Abbottabad.

Bin Laden's courier, the courier's brother and their wives and children also lived in the compound.

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Pakistan starts legal proceedings against bin Laden widows

Pakistani authorities have started legal proceedings against the widows of former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden for allegedly entering Pakistan illegally and alleged forgery, Pakistan's interior minister told reporters Thursday.

The widows are in the custody of Pakistani authorities, Minister Rehman Malik said.

Last year, Pakistan told U.S. officials that three wives of bin Laden, who was killed in Pakistan by U.S. forces last year, were living in the country.

Malik said two of bin Laden's widows have been detained. The status of the third widow, who authorities reported last year was also residing in Pakistan, was not immediately clear Thursday.

2011: U.S. interviews "hostile" bin Laden widows

"Their entry into Pakistan was illegal," Malik said. "They also did not inform the authorities that they were living here.

Pakistan destroys bin Laden compound Bin Laden's advice to his children

"And there were many other incidents where deception and forgery was committed," Malik told reporters.

The widows have already been presented in court and are now in custody, the minister added.

"The most important thing is that the women are kept in a proper manner, and keeping this in mind they have been kept in a proper house which has been declared a sub-jail," Malik said.

Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency initiated the proceedings against the widows three days ago.

"They can have their own lawyers, and they will have the whole liberty to defend themselves in the court," Malik said.

The children of the widows aren't included in the proceedings and are free to live the country, he explained.

"There is no case on the children. Only the adult family members, who knew the law and who abetted Osama, have had a case registered against them," Malik said.

"A five-bedroom house has been given to them, so the children feel they are in their own home and have been given every type of facility, food and shelter, as though it were their own home," he added.

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OSAMA BIN LADEN WAS NOT buried at sea

The fate of Osama bin Laden's remains have been called into question after emails leaked from an intelligence analysis firm say the body of the terror leader was actually sent to the U.S. for cremation.

Terrorist: Osama bin Laden was killed on May 1, 2011 in the now-famous raid by Navy SEAL Team Six at his secret Pakistan compound

According to the emails, the Al Qaeda boss was shot and killed during the famous Navy SEAL Team Six raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was transported back to the U.S. and cremated.

The emails were allegedly obtained by the hacker group Anonymous from Stratfor, an organisation dealing with analysis of intelligence and geopolitical analysis.

Last week, Anonymous announced that it had gotten access to 2.7million of the firm’s confidential correspondences, and said they could provide 'the smoking gun for a number of crimes'.

The hackers said Stratfor, based in Austin, Texas, were 'clueless' when it came to database security.

After bin Laden was killed in the famous raid in Pakistan on May 2 2011, the Obama administration said his body was buried at sea off the USS Carl Vinson - in accordance with Islamic tradition.

But in a particular set of emails given to WikiLeaks, the firm’s vice president for intelligence, Fred Burton, says he doubts the official White House version of what happened to bin Laden's body.

Stratfor’s vice-president for intelligence, Fred Burton, says the body was 'bound for Dover, [Delaware] on [a] CIA plane' and 'onward to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Bethesda

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Pakistan demolishes Osama bin Laden’s compound

Pakistani security forces on Saturday began demolishing the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed in a covert US raid in May in the northwestern garrison town of Abbottabad, police and witnesses said.

“Two bulldozers are engaged, the demolition work is in progress, it is being done by security forces, including troops,” a police official on the spot told AFP by telephone on condition of anonymity.

The compound where bin Laden lived for several years has been under the control of the security forces since the Al-Qaeda leader was killed by US Navy SEALs.

“I am on security duty, I can see dust is coming out of the building,” the official said.

Police have been deployed at the outer cordon and army troops are around the compound, manning the inner cordon, he said.

“We have received orders to be here,” another police officer, Sameen Jan, said, confirming that the “compound is being demolished.”

Witnesses said troops blocked access to the compound, brought heavy machinery and barred journalists from taking pictures or coming close to the site.

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Osama bin Laden wanted to marry Whitney Houston and slay Bobby Brown

Osama bin Laden lusted after Whitney Houston, dreamed of marrying her and at one point even plotted to murder her husband Bobby Brown, a new book has claimed.

The incredible account of the terrorist's infatuation with the late singer comes from Sudanese author Kola Boof, who it is widely accepted lived with him as his mistress.

It was 1996, and just a few years later Bin Laden would mastermind the most appalling terrorist attack ever to happen on American soil.

But holed-up in his Moroccan compound he had different things on his mind, namely s*x, smoking cannabis and dancing to western pop groups like the B52s and Van Halen.

Boof, who claims she was kept as a "s*x slave" by the world's most dangerous terrorist, said he thought the singer was "the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen" and that he was desperate to marry her.

In an autobiography released in 2006, Boof claims bin Laden plotted to have Brown murdered before wooing Houston by giving her a mansion he owned in the suburbs of Khartoum.

According to her account, the strongly racist bin Laden puffed on cannabis before announcing he would be willing to "break his colour rule" and make Houston one of his wives.

Inside his warped mind he believed Houston was truly Islamic but had been brainwashed by American culture.

Boof, who is black, claimed bin Laden scolded her for braiding her hair and ordered her to model herself on Houston instead.

"He smoked a little marijuana from a gold hookah, sipping his tea and instructing me that I was always to keep hot tea for his 'kif-canbo', to ease the burn in his chest," the Daily Mail quoted Boof as writing in her book.

"Osama said only monkeys braid their hair. He told me that the singer Whitney Houston was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen and that she never wore her hair braided.

"'I want you to fix your hair like hers from now on,' he said. 'I can't put my fingers through it when it's braided.

"Osama kept coming back to Whitney Houston. He asked if I knew her personally when I lived in America. I told him I didn't.

"He said that he had a paramount desire for Whitney Houston, and although he claimed music was evil, he spoke of someday spending vast amounts of money to go to America and try to arrange a meeting with the superstar.

"It didn't seem impossible to me. He said he wanted to give Whitney Houston a mansion that he owned in a suburb of Khartoum. He explained to me that to possess Whitney he would be willing to break his colour rule and make her one of his wives.

"I tried to hide my outrage at his racist remarks, but it would come to pass that for the entire time that I would be trapped in his palm, Whitney Houston's was the one name that would be mentioned constantly.

"How beautiful she is, what a nice smile she has, how truly Islamic she is but is just brainwashed by American culture and her husband-Bobby Brown, whom Osama talked about having killed, as if it were normal to have women's husbands killed.

"In his briefcase I would come across photographs of the star, as well as copies of Playboy, but nobody in the West believes me when I tell them this. It's like they have this totally bogus image of Osama bin Laden.

"Anyway, it would soon come to the point where I was sick of hearing Whitney Houston's name," she wrote.

Her story first surfaced in 2002 when the Guardian newspaper published an article claiming she had had a forced s*xual relationship with bin Laden.

Later in a two-part interview with MSNBC she was billed as the "Former Mistress of Osama Bin Laden".

While some claimed she had made up the story and that it was impossible because of her afro-American heritage, Boof has stood by her account and points out that yet two of bin Laden's twenty-five children are black and his Syrian grandmother also could be considered a Black woman.

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