“an active command and control center” — with no phones and internet?
Having a courier take letters back and forth, that takes days and bring back a response in another few days, then another instruction back in several days again... Sure, that makes a lot of sense for “an active command and control center”...
It makes absolute sense if the largest intelligence operation in the world is scouring everything electronic for the slightest sign of your location, so that they can send a couple dozen men in stealth helicopters in the middle of the night and put two rounds into your head.
I wonder what the satellite dish(es) were for? I swear I saw at least two in the diagram.
Make up a bunch of emails with instructions, give them to your courier, and go to bed. Your courier drives a few hundred miles, finds one of many houses in Pakistan with unsecured wifi, uploads your email, downloads info, drives back and hands you the info and responses while you're having breakfast.
Having a courier take letters back and forth, that takes days and bring back a response in another few days, then another instruction back in several days again... Sure, that makes a lot of sense for “an active command and control center”...
In a setting where attacks on soft (i.e. undefended) targets take months to years to be planned, practiced, and finally implemented it is not at all incongruous that the highest command level, responsible for target selection and financing, could have slow communications. Especially if it lead to very good security.
Look at the 9/11 attacks. OBL did not have day-to-day command responsibility, that rested with disposable underlings. He selected the targets, and periodically released money to the operational organization. If the status reports he read were a week old, so what? These were not modern military operations where speed is required.
Suppose he decides to attack a rail system. The date will be a year or more in the future. Why does he need daily reports? A monthly report is all he needs, if that. All he needs in the way of feedback is funding requests and some idea of when the plot will mature, so he doesn't launch a conflicting operation.
The danger lies in the sick mind that thinks this stuff up, the ability to finance it, and the group of followers who take his orders with religious fervor.