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In secret will, Osama bin Laden wanted his fortune to keep funding war on West Osama bin Laden warned against almost every aspect of Islamic State playbook
(about 5 hours later)
Osama bin Laden left a will indicating that he had about $29 million in Sudan, with detailed instructions to “spend all the money I have left” continuing the global terror campaign he had led, according to newly released documents recovered by the United States from the compound in Pakistan where the al-Qaeda chief was killed in 2011. Osama bin Laden spent his final years engaged in a futile struggle to prevent his terror network from unraveling and embracing the brutal tactics that have since become signatures of the Islamic State, according to documents released Tuesday that were recovered from the compound where the al-Qaeda leader was killed in 2011.
The handwritten will and 112 other documents were released Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — a collection that also includes letters to subordinates in al-Qaeda, messages from followers willing to carry out suicide attacks, and screeds on issues including bin Laden’s conviction that the United States and Iran were poised for war. In letters to subordinates, bin Laden denounced almost every aspect of the Islamic State playbook. He warned against seizing more territory than would be possible to hold, against prematurely declaring the restoration of the Islamic “caliphate,” and even against “publishing pictures of prisoners after they were beheaded.”
[Read the latest release of bin Laden documents][Read the latest release of bin Laden documents]
The files reinforce the sense that bin Laden was increasingly anxious about security amid an escalating campaign of CIA drone strikes as the decade-long hunt for the al-Qaeda leader wore on. He also appeared increasingly disconnected from how much his organization had been degraded, calling on deputies to mount operations and fill positions even as they pleaded that they lacked capable recruits. The admonishments were issued several years before al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq severed ties and rebranded itself the Islamic State. But the documents reveal the extent to which the ideological dispute behind that rupture was becoming in­trac­table even before bin Laden’s demise.
Even so, the pages reinforce the extent to which bin Laden continued to try to exercise authority over al-Qaeda from the high-walled compound in Abbottabad where he was ultimately killed in a helicopter raid by U.S. Navy SEALs in 2011. “The origins of the disagreement between al-Qaeda and [its Iraq wing] — all the guts are there,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official involved in reviewing the bin Laden letters and other materials that were declassified for Tuesday’s release.
His will, which is not dated and was translated by U.S. intelligence analysts, underscores his apparent hope that al-Qaeda would carry forward with the mission he set long after his demise. “I, Usama bin Muhammad ‘Awadh Bin ‘Abud Bin Laden, have signed below . . .” the document begins. Bin Laden was essentially warning subordinates that if they pursued the Islamic State model, “it will fail,” the official said, adding that he and other counterterrorism analysts are now “waiting to see if bin Laden was prescient.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the material.
Although it refers to $29 million in Sudan, it is not clear where that money was being kept — whether in cash, banks or property. Bin Laden was the scion of a family that made a vast fortune in construction projects for the Saudi royal family, although he was later expelled from that country and fled to Sudan. Although the Islamic State has experienced significant setbacks in recent months, the organization has eclipsed al-Qaeda as the dominant brand of Islamist militancy in the years since bin Laden wrote those messages and has replaced the parent group as the most feared sponsor of terrorist attacks against Europe and the United States.
[Months before raid, bin Laden considered leaving Pakistan compound] Bin Laden’s struggle to contain internal disputes over the terrorist group’s direction are traced in letters that are part of a broader collection of 112 documents released Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
He appeals to his relatives who might also seek claim to that fortune to “obey my will and to spend all the money that I have left in Sudan on jihad.” He goes on to make arrangements for smaller disbursements to relatives and subordinates, including “200,000 riyals for my sisters Maryam, Iman, and Atidal.” The files are the latest to be declassified and presented to the public from a massive trove that was recovered from the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where bin Laden was killed in a helicopter raid by U.S. Navy SEALs. U.S. intelligence officials said that a final release from the bin Laden trove is expected to take place later this year.
It is not clear what became of bin Laden’s fortune, although the United States and other governments devoted enormous energy to seizing al-Qaeda funds and disrupting its financial support networks. The collection includes letters to subordinates in al-Qaeda, messages from followers willing to carry out suicide attacks and screeds on issues including bin Laden’s conviction that the United States and Iran were poised for an apocalyptic war.
Other documents in the latest trove include a lengthy draft of a speech in which bin Laden predicts a costly war between the United States and Iran. “Its drums are beating in the east and west, about the third world war that the leader of the White House is threatening our region with, and he has specified Iran and its allies,” the undated document says. In one letter, bin Laden scolds one of his deputies for threatening attacks against Iran, saying, “As you are aware, Iran is our main artery for funds, personnel and communication.”
Tuesday’s disclosures follow two previous releases from the massive trove of bin Laden files found at his hiding place in Pakistan. A DNI spokesman said that it is “important that the documents collected at bin Laden’s compound be made available to the public.” Members of bin Laden’s family were held there for years in a murky state of house arrest, leading to speculation that al-Qaeda and Tehran had formed a wary partnership. But U.S. intelligence officials said they have found no evidence in the Abbottabad files of any formal arrangement along those lines.
Other documents provide new details on the day-to-day existence for bin Laden in the walled Abbottabad compound and allude to the growing strain on the Pakistani brothers who served as his caretakers and couriers.
At one point, bin Laden writes to a colleague that the eight-year arrangement had taken such a toll on Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti that the courier’s health was deteriorating and that “it is a must that we find new companions to replace them because, for a long time, they were asking us to be released.”
He then goes on to write a job description, saying the task is mainly to “provide security cover” and make trips to the market. “We bake our own bread and the milk is delivered to the house,” he wrote, adding that the children at the compound did not go to the doctors “except . . . for broken bones.”
Bin Laden was increasingly anxious about security amid an escalating campaign of CIA drone strikes. He also frequently seemed clueless to how much his organization had been degraded, calling on deputies to mount operations and fill positions even as they pleaded that they lacked capable recruits.
Most of the messages are believed to have been drafted between 2009 and 2011. But some of the documents were handwritten and predate the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Among them is a will that officials said was probably written in the mid-1990s in Sudan, before bin Laden relocated to Afghanistan.
In scrawled Arabic writing, bin Laden says that he has $29 million in a bank account in Sudan, and he leaves detailed instructions that if he were to die he wants his followers to “spend all the money I have left” continuing the global terrorism campaign.
The sum was part of bin Laden’s share of a massive fortune his family built through contracts on construction projects for the Saudi royal family. U.S. officials said they do not know what became of the money in that Sudanese account.
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