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             US Releases Documents Recovered During Bin Laden Raid

   by VOA News

   The U.S. government released Wednesday dozens of documents it said were
   recovered during the 2011 raid on the compound in Pakistan where U.S.
   forces killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

   The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement
   that the [1]release of the documents followed a "rigorous'' review by
   U.S. government agencies and "aligns with the president's call for
   increased transparency consistent with national security
   prerogatives.''

   It said the 2014 Intelligence Authorization Act required the office to
   conduct a review of the documents for release.

   The released material included a variety of declassified documents,
   personal letters to family members, a list of English language books
   recovered from the compound, think tank studies, software and other
   technical manuals, and material published by other militant groups.

   Bin Laden's final years were haunted by his accurate hunch that he was
   hunted by a technologically advanced foe. With his family, he issued
   ever more detailed instructions as to how they were to avoid leading
   U.S. agents to him.

   According to a letter that was declassified on Wednesday and provided
   by the CIA to the French news agency AFP -- which cannot independently
   confirm its authenticity -- bin Laden warned one of his wives traveling
   from Iran to be careful as "some chips have been lately developed for
   eavesdropping, so small they could easily be hidden inside a syringe,"
   he wrote in a Septemeber 2010 letter, according to the CIA's own
   translation.

   Bin Laden told her to "leave everything" behind, "since the Iranians
   are not to be trusted, it is possible to implant a chip in some of the
   belongings that you might have brought along with you."

   The letter was one of scores seized along with other intelligence
   materials when U.S. commandos stormed a compound in Abbottabad, a
   Pakistani city that also was home to a Pakistani military base, May 2,
   2011, and shot Bin Laden dead.

   In other letters, bin Laden struggled to explain to his sometimes
   reluctant lieutenants why security was paramount, even when it made
   running a global jihadist operation harder.

   "Concerning using the Internet for correspondence, it is OK for general
   messages, but the secrecy of the mujahideen does not allow its usage,
   and couriers are the only way," he wrote.

   Atiyah Abd al Rahman, a commander known in al-Qaida as Mahmud and bin
   Laden's right-hand man, balked at the practice.

   "The issue is highly complicated. How can we correspond with brothers
   in Algeria, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia?" Rahman asked in one letter,
   pushing to use online communication. "Sometimes there is no other means
   after taking precautions. As for Iraq, we will try, but it is too
   difficult."

   But bin Laden was implacable on the subject.

   U.S. forces killed bin Laden, leader of the militant organization
   responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States,
   in which about 3,000 people died.

   "It is in the interest of the American public for citizens, academics,
   journalists and historians to have the opportunity to read and
   understand bin Laden's documents," U.S. House of Representatives
   intelligence committee Chairman Devin Nunes said in a statement.

   Nunes said Wednesday's release of 86 new reports, bringing the total
   number of declassified reports to 120, is "a step in the right
   direction." He added: "I look forward to the conclusion of the ongoing
   efforts to declassify the hundreds of remaining Abbottabad reports to
   meet congressional requirements."

   Some material for this report came from AFP.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/us-releases-documents-recovered-durin
   g-bin-laden-raid/2779383.html

References

   1. http://www.odni.gov/index.php/resources/bin-laden-bookshelf?start=1
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/us-releases-documents-recovered-during-bin-laden-raid/2779383.html