Diary: bin Laden eyed new targets, big body count
U.S. commandos have obtained al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden’s private journal and other documents, which detail new targets and how to execute them, during last week's raid, the Associated Press reported Wednesday, quoting American officials.
Strike smaller cities, bin Laden suggested. Don't limit attacks to New York City, he said in his writings. Consider other areas such as Los Angeles or smaller cities. Spread out the targets.
In one particularly macabre bit of mathematics, bin Laden's writings show him musing over just how many Americans he must kill to force the U.S. to withdraw from the Arab world, the report said.
He concludes that small attacks had not been enough. He tells his disciples that only a body count of thousands, something on the scale of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, would shift U.S. policy.
Bin Laden also suggested target trains as well as planes, according to the report.
Bin Laden was communicating from his walled compound in Pakistan with al-Qaida's offshoots, including the Yemen branch that has emerged as the leading threat to the United States, the documents indicate.
The communications were in missives sent via plug-in computer storage devices called flash drives, the report said. The devices were ferried to bin Laden's compound by couriers, a process that is slow but exceptionally difficult to track.
They described the intelligence to the Associated Press only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about what was found in bin Laden's hideout, it said.
빈 라덴 일기장: LA도 테러의 표적
테러조직 알 카에다의 지도자 오사마 빈 라덴이 테러의 목표와 실행 방법 등을 상세하게 기록한 일기장이 빈 라덴 제거작전 과정에서 미군 특수부대에 의해 입수됐다고 AP통신이 익명의 미 정부 관계자의 말을 인용해 11일 보도했다.
이 기록 가운데 뉴욕만을 테러의 표적으로 삼지말고 로스앤젤레스와 여타 중소도시 등으로 목표를 확대해야 한다는 내용이 들어 있다고 AP 등 국내외 보도가 전했다.
비행기 뿐 만 아니라 열차에 대한 테러 감행도 빈 라덴은 일기장에서 적고 있다.
빈 라덴은 파키스탄 아보타바드의 은신처에서 예멘 지부 등과 같은 알 카에다의 하부조직과 계속 연락을 주고받은 것으로 확인됐다.
연락방법은 USB메모리 드라이브를 인편으로 전달하는 방식을 취한 것으로 알려졌는데 이는 의사소통에 상당한 시간이 걸리지만 추적을 피하는데는 가장 안전하다는 점 때문으로 여겨진다.