‘Emir’ bin Laden oversaw al Qaeda from compound

Washington Times ^ | 05/04/2011 | Eli Lake

[OldDeckHand]

Raid provides new insight into terrorist group’s operations

The covert operation that killed Osama bin Laden produced new evidence that the “emir” of al Qaeda actively commanded the terror group’s affiliates in Yemen, Somalia and other parts of North Africa and was not just an inspirational leader.

Materials found in bin Laden’s compound include hard drives, thumb drives and a dedicated fiber-optic cable used for point-to-point access to the Internet, according to two U.S. officials who read initial after-action reports on the raid.

The commandos who carried out the raid also found equipment for use with a multimedia studio where the al Qaeda leader likely recorded some of the audio and video messages he periodically made public over the past nine years as well as compact discs and paper documents, according to these officials.

[OldDeckHand]

Whatever bin Laden's grip on al Qaeda's command and control structure was, it's becoming increasingly clear that it was MUCH greater than both the Obama and Bush administrations led everyone to believe post Tora Bora.

It seems, at least initially, that bin Laden was still pretty involved. I guess only in the fullness of time, will we know to what extent he was involved and/or in control.

[swain_forkbeard]

It would make more sense to me to provide LESS detail about what went down and what we found. I don’t understand the communications strategy at all.

[Tex-Con-Man]

...dedicated fiber-optic cable used for point-to-point access to the Internet...

I thought they didn't have internet? Ever evolving story continues.

[gandalftb]

Since 9/11, there has been a general ignorance of how AQ works.

They organize around tasks, not leaders.

Not only for reasons of operational freedom and security, but to de-emphasize the need for leadership charisma in an operation that may see its leadership degraded and replaced during the planning and staging. I.e., the jihadist show must go on.

UBL's principal role was the distribution of money to the affiliates and to the several hundred Afghan muj that married into AfPak. That is how he retained his influence and relevance.

Z and his ilk are loathed by the old school AQ and have mostly slithered back to Somalia and the Sudan. They have little money and decreasing connections. Z and his Egyptians (al Masri) are just too arrogant to get along with the Arabs.

Yemen will now become the centerpiece of our AQ threat.

[gandalftb]

The leaks are deliberate, we are watching to see who ducks or goes silent.

[WellyP]

Buried fiber optic cable and most likely also buried electrical cable traversing a great distance to another house or another compound well away from the compound???

[umgud]

Materials found in bin Laden’s compound include hard drives, thumb drives and a dedicated fiber-optic cable used for point-to-point access to the Internet

Can someone clarify this? binny@ahab.net?

[jda]

UBL's principal role was the distribution of money ...

About that: For as much money as he supposedly had, his home was a rat hole! Granted, a very large rat hole, but a real mess nontheless.

[McGruff]

...a dedicated fiber-optic cable used for point-to-point access to the Internet...

Jeez. Initially we were told he didn't have any Internet or telephone access. Which is it people?

[kallisti]

Transparent when it hurts America, opaque when it hurts the administration.

[gandalftb]

UBL was well known for deliberate personal frugality and piety. He learned that as a boy, by his father who often took him into the desert to live with the bedouin. UBL saw himself as a mystic ascetic like the prophet muhammad and offered a personal example similar to our monks.

UBL believed in toughening those around him by denial of comfort. That is why many of his children and wives refused to live with him.

[OldDeckHand]

"Jeez. Initially we were told he didn't have any Internet or telephone access. Which is it people? "

This is just more evidence of the cluster-f**K that is the Obama White House. Not only have Brennan and Carney been an embarassement, not just to themselves and their president, but to their country too, it's the "off-the-record" background "leaks" that have been an abortion as well.

Bush had plentiful faults, but with respect to national security issues and how those issues are communicated with the press, both publicly and privately, there's no comparison. And in fact, the press HATED Bush for that reason - his people wouldn't leak BTS if the leaks weren't well-coordinated. There was a a reason for that, and it's a lesson Obama hasn't yet learned.

If this was the Bush White House peddling all these phony stories, the press would have fileted him by now - nothing but media silence for Obama.

[Tex-Con-Man]

A buried optical cable would almost be assumed.

But why would they go out of their way to make the claim, as fact, that there is no internet to the compound unless they had already discounted the possibility of something as obvious as a buried cable?

Is everyone in this administration authorized to speak on their own behalf, on any subject they wish?

[Psalm 144]

“I don’t understand the communications strategy at all.”

The Whitehouse is desperate to show any area of success or competence - never mind that the essential work was set in motion years ago by people Obama and his base despises.

One thing that I have no doubt about is this: not one person on the team within that compound got there by affirmative action.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Fiber optic ....very interesting ...so he was connected to the outside world...

Was just listening to the WH news briefing where the decision for no photos was announced...

Followed by Shep on Foxnews getting all lathered up about it...and did we ask questions before we shot him.

NO WHERE have AI seen anyone ask a question that is bothering me...

Did UBL have the room wired up with a bomb ???

So that he would do himself in rather than be done in by his enemies?

If he even slightly moved for a gun or the Doomsday button I would have shot him...he knew they were coming...up the stairs...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Bet that Fiber optic connects into the Pakistan Military Internet connections.

[Grampa Dave]

Why would he have a self destruct device.

He felt so safe, that apparently he had no security people in place.

He was safe at his home in Pakicrap until the seals came in.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

If I were a member of the squad....I would take no chances...and blast away at any movement....

[rockinqsranch]

NOT interested in betting against you.

[BIGLOOK]

Fiber optic ....very interesting ...so he was connected to the outside world...

Just an aside here, obviously he was connected to the Internet and involved actively receiving information and data from outside his little hidey hole. But let's remember that the discovery of his location was made by identifying and tracking couriers. As long as he was only receiving and not transmitting (relying on couriers to run whatever operations or orders to his organization in a 7th century manner), signals intelligence services (ours, the Brits, Mossad and the rest) were blind to his location through SIGINT, COMINT tracking.

Maybe he thought, up until the end, that he was safe, tucked away in the Pakis' military community with his family and had no need to wire the place to destruct.

Ft. Meade should have spent more time tracking cable subscriber billing records.