Al Qaeda terrorist chief and mass murderer Osama bin Laden apparently kept a journal – and now the U.S. has it:
A journal apparently handwritten by Osama bin Laden is among the trove of evidence recovered by U.S. Navy SEALs in the operation that killed the al Qaeda leader more than a week ago, U.S. officials said today.
The notebook, which was described by one official as a “professional journal,” detailed al Qaeda doctrine, potential targets and how to carry out attacks against them. U.S. intelligence analysts conducted a handwriting analysis of the journal and believe it was personally written by bin Laden, who another official described as a “meticulous note-taker.”
The notes describing potential plots against the U.S. rail system, which prompted an advisory from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security last week, were part of the journal, officials said. Analysts have been poring over the documents in the ten days since bin Laden was killed and still no immiment plots have been discovered, though officials said there is still much work to do.
The journal also revealed that bin Laden encouraged attacks against smaller cities in the U.S. and was in communication with the Yemeni branch of al Qaeda, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which U.S. officials have recently described as the greatest threat to America, according to a report by The Associated Press.
The obvious SNL skit on this would show bin Laden at a desk, writing in a book that began “Dear Diary” and have him write about how his biggest wish is to kill more infidels.
But it would not be a joke:
The al Qaeda leader even allegedly tallied how many American lives it would cost to force a U.S. withdrawal from the Arab world, according to officials cited in the AP report
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It’s pretty clear that this being called as “treasure trove” is not exaggeration. And most likely only a tiny bit of the intelligence gold is now being revealed to the public.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.