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Diary: Bin Laden eyed new targets, big body count

Osama bin Laden kept pressing followers to find new ways to hit the U.S. while he was deep in hiding and his terror organization was becoming battered and fragmented, officials say, citing his private journal and other documents recovered in last week's raid.

Strike smaller cities, bin Laden suggested. Target trains as well as planes. Above all, kill as many Americans as possible in a single attack.

This file photo shows al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden speaking to a selected group of reporters in the mountains of Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. (AP)
This file photo shows al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden speaking to a selected group of reporters in the mountains of Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. (AP)


Though he was out of the public eye and al-Qaida seemed to be weakening, bin Laden never yielded control of his worldwide organization, U.S. officials said Wednesday. His personal, handwritten journal and his massive collection of computer files reveal his hand at work in every recent major al-Qaida threat, including plots in Europe last year that had travelers and embassies on high alert, two officials said.

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. Analysts are continuing to review the documents.

The information shatters the government's conventional thinking about bin Laden, who had been regarded for years as mostly an inspirational figurehead whose years in hiding made him too marginalized to maintain operational control of the organization he founded.

Instead, 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. Though there is no evidence yet that he was directly behind the attempted Dec. 25 Christmas Day 2009 bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner or the nearly successful attack on cargo planes heading for Chicago and Philadelphia, it is now clear that they bear some of bin Laden's hallmarks.

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. 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.

He also schemed about ways to sow political dissent in Washington and play political figures against one another, officials said.

The communications were in missives sent via plug-in computer storage devices called flash drives. The devices were ferried to bin Laden's compound by couriers, a process that is slow but exceptionally difficult to track.

Intelligence officials have not identified any new planned targets or plots in their initial analysis of the 100 or so flash drives and five computers that an assault team of Navy SEALs hauled away after killing bin Laden. Last week, the FBI and Homeland Security Department warned law enforcement officials nationwide to be on alert for possible attacks against trains, though officials said there was no specific plot.

Officials have not yet seen any indication that bin Laden had the ability to coordinate timing of attacks across the various al-Qaida affiliates in Pakistan, Yemen, Algeria, Iraq and Somalia, and it is also unclear from bin Laden's documents how much the affiliate groups relied on his guidance. The Yemen group, for instance, has embraced the smaller-scale attacks that bin Laden's writings indicate he regarded as unsuccessful. The Yemen branch had already surpassed his central operation as al-Qaida's leading fundraising, propaganda and operational arm.

 

<관련 한글 기사>

美 블로거의 빈 라덴 가상일기 '눈길'

TV 영화작가 잭 헬무스가 올려..내용은 '황당+비꼬기'
"빈 라덴, 오바마 취임식 날 부시 그리워했다"

미국이 사살된 오사마 빈 라덴의 일기장을 입수한 소식이 알려진 뒤 빈 라덴의 가상 일기장이 미국 블로거의 코미디 소재로 등장했다.

미국 허핑턴포스트는 11일 '새터데이 나이트 라이브'에서 활동했던 TV.영화 작가 겸 제작자인 잭 헬무스의 트위터 계정을 통해 입수한 가상 일기장 발췌록을 소개했다.

헬무스는 이 글에서 빈 라덴이 버락 버락 오바마 미국 대통령의 취임식이 열린 2009년 1월 20일 일기장에다 물러나는 조지 W. 부시 미국 대통령이 그리워질 것이라고 썼다고 적었다.

이 글은 언뜻 보면 2006년 3월 25일부터 사망 당일인 지난 5월 2일까지 빈 라덴이 직접 쓴 일기장인 것처럼 보이지만 내용상으로 보면 상당히 황당한 내용이 담겨있다.

구체적으로 빈 라덴이 2009년 1월 20일 "오바마가 오늘 대통령 취임식에서 선서를 했고 나는 부시가 그리워질 것이며 그는 우리에게 훌륭한 신병 모집원이었다"고 쓴 점이 눈길을 끈다.

또 빈 라덴이 자신이 최후를 맞은 파키스탄 아보타바드의 은신처에 이사 오던 2006년 당시 그가 이삿짐센터와 갈등을 빚었고 해리포터와 할리우드 영화를 즐겨 봤다는 다소 엉뚱한 내용도 담겨 있다.

이 글에서 빈 라덴이 여배우 메릴 스트립의 열광적 팬으로 묘사된 것도 눈길을 끈다.

헬무스는 빈 라덴이 할리우드를 다 불태워 없애고 싶어했고 유대인에게 강한 반감을 가진 인물로 묘사하기도 했다.

또 그는 이 가상 일기장에서 빈 라덴을 아내와 수행원의 이름도 기억 못 하고 성기능에 문제가 있어 비아그라를 복용하는 인물로 묘사하며 비꼬았다.
아울러 한 여자와 잠자리를 하는 것을 지겨워하는 일부다처제를 옹호하는 인물로도 부각시켰다.

지난해 10월 14일자 가상 일기를 통해서는 빈 라덴이 미국인에게 감시받고 있다는 것을 눈치 챘지만 별일 아닌 것으로 넘어간 인물로 표현했다.
   
또 2007년 11월 9일자 일기에는 "빈 라덴이 로널드 레이건 대통령이 준 가장 좋아하는 AK-47 소총을 닦았다"고 쓰기도 했다.

AP통신에 따르면 미국은 빈 라덴이 테러의 목표와 실행 방법 등을 상세하게 기록한 일기장을 입수해 분석 중이다.

미국 정보 관리들은 입수한 일기장을 분석하고 있지만 원문은 공개되지 않고 있다.

(연합뉴스)
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