Thursday, May 21, 2015
WASHINGTON: He may or may not have initiated it, but Osama bin Laden showed a great deal of interest in the Mumbai 26/11 terror attack launched by Pakistani proxies. A collection of books and documents that were recovered from the Al Qaeda supremo's Abbottabad hideout that were released by U.S intelligence on Wednesday shows bin Laden kept track of U.S prosecution of David Headley and his associates who helped the ISI plan the attack.
Among the documents found in bin Laden's room when he was killed by U.S Navy Seals -- who subsequently brought the documents to U.S - were
U.S. Department of Justice Complaint against David Headley U.S. Department of Justice Complaint against Tahwwur Hussain Rana (Headley's U.S associate) U.S. Department of Justice Indictment of David Coleman Headley U.S. Department of Justice Motion to Detain Tahwwur Hussain Rana
Also recovered was an article in the Tulsa World on criminal charges against Headley. The recovery of these documents suggests his Pakistani host also kept him updated about their exploits.
In a separate 15-page document titled "Terror Franchise: THE UNSTOPPABLE ASSASSIN: TECHS Vital role for its success" written by Abu-Salih Al Somali, the Mumbai terror attack is described as one of the "blessed" operations and the Pune German Bakery blast is called "beautiful" bombing.
"Following the London bombing and before it, there were several blessed operation against American and European targets in Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, India and elsewhere, such as the brave bombing of a bus carrying French nationals, the Marriott hotel massive bombing, the bombing of the Denmark embassy in Islamabad, the massive Bali bombings, and lately the heroic Fidai (martyrdom) operations in Bombay - India's economical capital - in which several western targets were struck in which many Americans and other westerners were killed," the document reads.
"Following that, was the beautiful huge bombing - also in India - of the western German bakery mainly visited by Jews and western nationals in general," it said about the 2010 Pune blast that was carried out two years after the Mumbai attack.
The collection of books on bin Laden's shelf show that while he was no terrorist mug, he relished liberal-left-wing writing from western scholars, Islamist anti-American tropes, and sundry conspiracy theories.
Books found on his shelf included Noam Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, and Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies; The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy; Imperial Hubris by Michael Scheuer; The Best Democracy Money Can Buy by Greg Palast; The Best Enemy Money Can Buy by Anthony Sutton; Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins and Obama's Wars by Bob Woodward.
He also showed a keen interest in nuclear developments in Iran and US interest in it, procuring books and maps on the subject.
The list of books, documents and other material was released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which said in a statement that the it followed a ''rigorous'' review by US government agencies and ''aligns with the president's call for increased transparency consistent with national security prerogatives.''
The DNI however did not release the list of pornographic materials which the Navy Seals are reported to have recovered from the Abbottabad compound, citing the ''nature of their contents.''
The release also follows allegations by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that the Navy Seals basically did not recover anything during a raid that was stage-managed with Pakistani cooperation and U.S claims of recovered material were essentially a fabrication by the Obama administration.