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Subscribe to RSSBy Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News chief Pentagon correspondent, and Robert Windrem, NBC News investigative producer for special projects
The U.S. Navy Seals who killed Osama bin Laden recovered a number of the former al-Qaida leader’s journals at the Pakistan compound where he was hiding, but they were forced to leave behind detailed logs of bin Laden and al-Qaida activity that the Pakistanis have not yet shared, senior U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday.
It was not clear how much material was left behind when the Seals evacuated the compound in Abbottabad on May 1, but senior U.S. military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it could have been a substantial amount.
Senior U.S. intelligence officials, also speaking on condition of anonymity, described the journals that were retrieved by the Seals as showing that bin Laden was active in planning al-Qaida operations.
"It shows he had a clear focus on attacking the United States, and a clear interest in how he might be able to insert operatives into the United States without alerting authorities,” one said.
In a previous Open Channel post, another U.S. intelligence official described the journals as showing that bin Laden was “fully engaged to carry out other 9-11 attacks.”
The second official said the Seals als recovered correspondence between bin Laden and senior al-Qaida officials concerning ideas for attacks.
The official said the correspondence was both one-way -- directives for the other al-Qaida leaders and affiliates – and two-way -- responses to suggestions made by his subordinates.
In the correspondence, bin Laden would often discuss places he would like attacked, the best times to attack and even which personnel he thought would be best for particular jobs.
"He was always trying to refine his approach," said the official.
The official also said that bin Laden would correspond through a chain of command, that the messages would be sent via courier to the organization's No. 3, its operations director, most recently Abu Atia, a North African who took over a year ago when longtime bin Laden aide Sheikh Sayed was killed in a drone attack. Atia would then distribute the message using his own courier network, the official said.
The official said there was little if any material in the journals in which Bin Laden reflected on his role or his "meaning of life" other than some poetry.
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My best guess is that Pakistan has to review and redact any mention of themselves, their actions, etc before they release the documents.
It is called CYA.
My best guess, or opinion rather, is that the U.S. needs to review and redact any and all aid to Pakistan should they cover up or refuse to release these documents to our intelligence services.
Otherwise, it is called KYA.
Pakistan is in the process of sharing the remains of the crashed helicopter with China - of course in exchange for something. Pakistan will share these logs with the US in exchange for some moolah! Pakistan - just have to play the game 'the price is right' ! Pakistan is sheltering at least 50 most wanted criminals and a myriad of terrorist organizations and their offshoots. ALL of them live openly in major cities and the administration / military / ISI simply deny their existence even though in many instances these terrorists have been photographed in Pakistan. What I fail to understand is where will the US draw the line in this stupid relationship? The US MUST IMMEDIATELY STOP all aid to this failed state and demand compliance. Of course China is there to cultivate them as a proxy against India but it is about time their nukes and games were shut down for good otherwise we are going to see a nuclear holocaust at the hands of these brainless extremist twits !
You may be correct; hopefully, Pakistan will later release the docs.
Incidentally, it is amusing that such senior NBC writers made so many elementary grammar mistakes in this article.
A seal is a marine mammal. A SEAL is an elite Special Forces warrior trained for combat on Sea, Air And Land.
As with all acronyms, SEAL needs to be capitalized.
Pakistan should understand,its good to be a friend of the United States. As a friend of the United States,they should freely share that information on Bin Ladens activities. Similarly,as freinds of Pakistan,we would refrain from sharing missile defense technology such as antibalistic missiles and advanced radar systems with India. On the other hand,if it turned out that Pakistan was NOT our freind,and withheld information about the activities of our late enemy,then perhaps we might reconsider that. Perhaps if Pakistan were not our friend,it might be in our best interests to find another friend in that area such as India who might aid us in our war on terror. In return for their help in defending ourselves we might offer assistance to them in return such as the above mentioned missile interception technology as well as intelligence information on Pakistans military from the CIA should they need it to defend themselves.
Its good to be our friend. Those who want to play games and cover up for our enemies would do well to remember that.
You mean, sharing nuclear secrets with India, as we have already done? We already decided that India was our friend, a long time ago, and that Pakistan better obey us and do whatever we tell them to. We are now seeing the results of that policy. It's not very hard to play the "it's good to be our friend" game. The Pakistanis learnt it from us.
It looks like after over 60 years Pakistani Rulers have come to realise that USA rulers are not their friends, but enemies, in the pockets of Muslims declared enemies, the Jews, who are the USA's proxy rulers. USSR leaders had threatened to wipe Pakistan off the map after the Pakistani rulers at the time were allowing the USA to fly their spy planes over the Soviet Territories, using Pakistani airfields. Americans would not and did not help Pakistan have a steel mill, which the Russians helped Pakistan with in the end.
USA imposed sanction on Pakistan for nuclear activities, but have never uttered a word about or against Israel's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons activities.
Over one million Afghans, including the Taliban, and Muslims from various nation sacrificed their lives for USA's proxy war against the Soviet Union. Soviet invasion and then carpet bombing by the Americans after 9/11 had sent over 3 million Afghan into Pakistan tribal areas. After the Soviet withdrawal, Americans, along with their other Western allies just walked away from Pakistan, leaving millions of Afghan for a poor country like Pakistan to take care of, and create problems within Pakistan.
Even now, grudgingly, and with so many conditions attached, they are given $7.5 billion blood money over 5 years to this country of 180 millions, fighting America's war against Muslims, with over 34,000 lives have been lost in Pakistan so far, and the economy has suffered a loss of $16 BILLION, because of USA's war. Yet, the American rulers continue to deposit direct into Israeli Treasury Account $5 billion each year of American Tax-Payers money even in this dire financial strait at home, and giving FREE military aid, some time giving the new weapons to the Israelis which are not even issued to the American forces. This is the stark reality in the USA, in its sham, a fraud democracy, where a tiny number of Jews own and control American rulers. Or, give me some MORAL reasons why the USA has not and does not STOP Israeli state terrorism against the Palestinians, and end the blocked of the biggest Concentration Camp, Gaza, (Vatican), and illegal settlement building in the occupied land for over 60 years.
“We, the Jewish people CONTROL America, and the Americans know it”
I am delighted to know that the Pakistan President has gone to neighbouring Russia on a 3 day visit, while the Prime Minister is in China for a 4 day visit, the most loyal and steadfast friend Pakistan have had for decades. Obama should NOT be invited to come to Pakistan, this murdering most evil half-white scum.
I still don't understand why anything was left behind. Did TheRock really think the Pakistanis would lift a finger against us? That compound should have been sealed off and claimed in the name of the US until every inch of it was covered.
Exactly...the more info that comes out...the more it smells.
40 minutes,one guy with a gun,and they couldn't pick up some books ? 20 guys?
Love how they say Bin Laden was reaching for a weapon...if he heard helicopters,explosions,gunfire,etc...you would think if he had a gun, he would have it in his hands...how the White House,CIA,and media try to spin this load of crap is almost as hilarious as the comments of people defending and praising the assasination of an unarmed man in the presence of children...IF ANY OF IT EVEN HAPPENED !
It's too bad JSOC didn't get the diary, but you can be sure it will be forthcoming, unredacted, or there will be a huge price to be paid by anyone who interfered.
govsgonebad - It really is amazing isn't it. This entire event and it's aftermath illustrates the perfect example of how the government (both dems and repubs) keep shoveling the horse manure at us. It's like a game, they know that we don't believe it, and we know that they know. Just the simple fact that they were supposedly watching the SEALS operation in "real time" and kept changing the story of how it went down on a daily basis for over a week. And no one seems to officially recognize or confront these obvious lies.
As I said before, I love America and am proud to be an American, but I just hate how our political leaders are flushing this country down the toilet and making the rest of the world hate us.
Major changes are needed in the way our government is run, but I doubt any of us will see those changes in our life times.
Hmm, go into a soverign nation with the intent of seeing a portion of it is "sealed off and claimed in the name of the US."
Yeah, good luck with that concept. Nice precedent to set. Good strategy to show what a freedom loving nation we are.
I don't think it would play very well in the eyes of our international allies, let alone our adversaries.
The real problem is...
We need to look back at history a little here... we play nice with Iran, they say to our faces "We love you guys", we turn our backs, they've got detailed drawings where the knife will go. And when they feel the time is right, they stab us in the back, we act all surprised about it, then we openly hate each other for a while, and out of spite... we play nice with Iraq, they say to our faces "We love you guys", we turn our backs, they've got detailed drawings where the knife will go. And when they feel the time is right, they stab us in the back, we act all surprised about it, then we openly hate each other for a while, and out of spite... we play nice with Syria, they say to our faces "We love you guys", we turn our backs, they've got detailed drawings where the knife will go. And when they feel the time is right, they stab us in the back, we act all surprised about it, then we openly hate each other for a while, and out of spite, we play nice with Libya, they say to our faces "We love you guys", we turn our backs, they've got detailed drawings where the knife will go. And when they feel the time is right, they stab us in the back, we act all surprised about it, then we openly hate each other for a while, and out of spite, we...
Does anyone else see the pattern here? We've only been doing this for decades.
The very definition of Insanity is: Doing the same thing again and again, expecting different results.
The bottom line is - these countries all despise us, they always have, they always will. They will say and do whatever it takes to convince us to turn our backs, so they can stick in the knife, and we keep doing it.
The heart of the problem is 3-fold:
1. We're too greedy and lazy to say "We don't want your oil." - too much of Wall St. is run on big oil, and no one is really ready to make the break and change over to alternative energy sources, because it's not profitable enough.
2. We cannot fully grasp the concept of "Hate". These are people who have spent the past 4000 years mastering the art of hate. Over there, your son wrongs my son, and his great grand son will take revenge on your great grand son over some 3-generation old slight. Of course, this then means you must retaliate for my vicious and "unprovoked" attack, since you haven't been brooding over this slight that took place two generations ago and I have been planning for the past 60 years. This is simply how the culture is, and we don't get it, we can't.
3. We place an artificial value on Israel. Yeah, nobody wants to hear this. We think of ourselves as a "christian" nation, and as such, we must value Israel, because some book, first written down decades after the events in it happened, says we should... but here's another set of problems:
a. Jews - An ancient, nomadic people, nomadic not by choice, but rather because they have been driven out of every place they have tried to settle. From what history tells us, these people have been wandering since they first mentioned they had a system of belief that was different than rest of the known world, and no one wanted them around. Even the ancient Egyptians drove them out (though according to them, they were "rescued from slavery" and led deep into the desert by an adopted prince-turned-pauper-turned-prophet...), and now they've set up camp in someone else's back yard (where they're still not wanted), and we're supposed to keep feeling sorry for them.... despite history, and despite the fact they are supposedly directly to blame for the brutal execution of a man who may or may not even have existed, who claimed to be the only begotten son of the same god everyone supposedly follows... christians, don't you think you should be just a little distraught, these folks had your mascot murdered after all... or maybe not, since, like a good zombie, he did get up out of his burial cave and walk around eating the brains of... oh, no, wait, that's a different story...
And these are the said same people who, when WWII came to pass, when the Germans, like everyone else in history, drove these people out - well, ok, they took a different approach, realizing that driving them out was akin to putting crumbs outside your house to keep roaches out and just started wiping them out of existence - not nearly so nice, and we ran to their aid once again... not quite sure why though...
and we keep doing it, again and again and again... same results, try again.
b. christians - like Jews, no one over there wants them either. Unlike the Jews though, these folks weren't interested in actually taking over someone else's back yard, they just wanted to keep the then-dying Roman Empire going by insinuating themselves into politics. That whole Crusades thing killed plenty enough arabs to fuel additional centuries of blood-fueds.
c. Islam - The indigenous religion of the region. It doesn't mix with other faiths by design. In many Islamic-led nations, it is a crime to not be Islamic, often punishable by death, which then prompts blood-feuding.
So, Islam hates Jews because they take their land and kill their people. Fair enough I suppose, who can blame them? Islam hates christians because they kill their people and give their land to Jews. Again, who can blame them?
Of course, if they actually followed their beliefs and understood them, they'd realize they were just as wrong, but then, religion would be wrong, thus 4000 years of bloodshed has all been wrong, and that can't be right.... same result, try again.
Personally, I don't have anything against Jews, Muslims, christians, or anyone else, though my rhetoric might sound that way, it's really rather objective, and we often find uncomfortable truth to be objectionable, but I have to point it out, because we're too happy to not look at the real truth:
It's all utterly insane. Wholesale slaughter in the name of religion, peace and love. How can anyone not have a problem with that?
The bottom line is: We cannot, will not accept the fact that these people are not trustworthy. They've only proven that time and time again. They always tell us what we want to hear to make us go away, and we keep doing it - same result, try again.
Pakistan will never admit to their role.
Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lybia... same thing, try again.
Indigo............Brilliant
To begin with, Pakistan is not a state of the United States, so they are under no obligation to do anything at all. For us to act as if they are doing something illegal is a joke, considering that we do whatever we want, whenever we want and don't care what is international law or what other countries we step on.
This whole concept of "if something is done that the U.S. doesn't like, then it is illegal" shows incredible arrogance
George, why do you fail to realize the utmost importance of this situation?
The last time the US had a spot on Bin Laden, they DID let the government within know that they found him and wanted to strike. THAT GOVERNMENT AWARENESS had a leak just in time to let Osama bounce out of the area.
We can't trust any of these areas enough for the importance of stopping this man.
So if you had family on a train that was in the plans of being bombed or in vicinity of an inserted suicide bomber, would you still think that getting this information isn't an absolute need?
It's information on attacking our country for crisesakes! Get real!
It's one thing if the information was disputable, but we KNOW it exists. We saw it there. Pakistan recovered it and they must share it otherwise they are playing a dangerous game.
Let's face it, what ever information we get from Pakistan is going to cost the US billions of dollars still, because we are held hostage to them as they are a nuclear country and we can't afford to let them to go roag.
George-1129326: "For us to act as if they are doing something illegal is a joke"
You mean like harboring the world's most wanted fugitive?
George--you are so naive. Please, turn off the computer and go get an education. Bye.
Pakistan is under a moral obligation to provide the diary, and any other information they recovered.
Can you document that or provide any suppoorting information?
By George ! But they have no problem HOLDING OUT THEIR GRUBBY hands for monthly dole outs? Sure we are stupid enough to keep feeding them but hey, if they can take our money, we can demand anything!
I guess you do not know how much money our government gives them...Billions of dollars. We do have a right.
As long as they accept our Billions of dollars every year they have no say. I say bull their funding and watch what happens. If the crazy @!$%#s try to take over the nuclears, bomb the @!$%# out of the place.
George If I had any say in the matter Pakistan would not get one more nickel in aid until they turned over all the terrorists hiding in their country, all OBL wives and the tail section of the helicopter.
Tell that to the families of 9-11.... We have a right to be arrogant.. and more...What we ought to do
is leave all thesae countries alone and 'fair' for ourselves at home. But we have americans living
elsewhere we must protect from the REAL ARROGANT TERRORISTS... Or should we turn the other
cheek and let them 'nuc' our cities..
It's rather amazing how people don't understand what the billions of dollars of "aid" Pakistan gets are for. They are toll to put supplies through Pakistan. Everyone is very polite about it, and pretends that we are making a gift to Pakistan, whereas they pretend we are welcome guests when passing through their country. Beyond that, friendship is paid for friendship. They helped us beat the Soviets in Afghanistan, and as soon as the Soviets left, we left Afghanistan and Pakistan to rot. When we needed them to get back into Afghanistan, suddenly they were our good friends again. No one is fooling anyone. They consider themselves under as much moral obligation to help us as we consider ourselves under moral obligation to help them.
Grow up.
I don`t understand why we just don`t invade and wipe them out even if they have nuclear weapons. We invade anyone else that does us wrong. You also have to remember the people there are not very smart which make the ones that have everything dictate whats going on over there. All I know is if someone kept coming to me for money and then stabs you in the back every time after then what the hell are you doing? Your really not helping your just a stupid co-dependent. The answer is easy stop buying oil from those arabs and they`ll go broke. The common people there don`t give a crap about the American way of life.
Exactly what came to my mind Lexi.
They have to clear any connections that incriminate themselves first.
They need to hand this stuff over pronto or they really start looking guilty.
Pakistan isn't going to share anything they found after the SEALS left. They already were made jerks of a country (which they are) in the face of the world. If they still want our money aid..give the info to us... our so called allies!
Really, George. How many billions have we given to them? We have bought that county several times over! How about we quit giving those bastards our money and let them starve and try fund their nuclear weapons program without it. Go back to your hole and hide.
IMHO, Pakistan is complicit in the hiding of OBL, or at the very least, looking the other way! They should be sanctioned and their nuclear facilities inspected by the UN and IAEA, respectively. If it walks like a duck, etc....
When we have information that we DID take with us that contain phrases of:
"Strike smaller cities. Target trains as well as planes. Above all, kill as many Americans as possible in a single attack."
and
"Don't limit attacks to New York City. Consider other areas such as Los Angeles or smaller cities. Spread out the targets."
and
"only a body count of thousands, something on the scale of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks"
Give us the damn information we left behind...
Pakistan has only two nukes..India has more..I think we can get Pakistan to agree with us without giving them $BILLIONS$.
Sorry to late. Done!!!
2 nukes...where did you get your information? They currently have at least 100 and are making more.
India probably has at least that many if not more. India woul be a more reliable ally as well.
C.L.Hale, where do you get your info..if your going to disagree..at least leave the source of proof! Or STFU
John Williams-nam-vet: Go to Reuters or any other reputed news site and check for Pakistani nuclear arsenal. They have between 60-120 war heads. Their delivery mechanism is not in place, but that won't stop them from deploying a dirty bomb through the incredibly huge network of suicide bombers they have in place.
One thing people forget is that China is a major player here and is Pakistan's "all-weather friend". In fact what most people don't know is that the part of Kashmir controlled by Pakistan was divided by the Pakistani government and given to China. China claims it to be part of Tibet.
The Pakistanis won't turn over those journals until they have read them and deleted all the entries referencing how much Pakistani government officials have helped bin Laden stay hid from the US.
I don't expect a whole lot of coooperation from Pakistan. Too much corruption and cover ups over there to ever, ever, ever, think there would be any trust between them and us when it comes to revealing all they know.
i agree but then why have we kissed their collective a***** for years? well before 9/11? they are sleaze that we went to bed with during the cold-war and never have had the guts or smarts to let them fall upon their own mistakes.
Getting Pakistan to hand over anything is not difficult. Just turn off the money spigot - they will come crawling on their knees. They have been dependent on the US and China for over 25 years and left alone - they will self destruct ! Had we shut off the money earlier - they would have sold Bin Laden and every SOB they could have found just to keep themelves going.
"Pakistan has only two nukes." Hey John, you only need one in the wrong hands, and there are plenty of wrong hands nearby. If US - Pakistan had a FB page the relationship status would read "It's complicated."
time to make Pakistan lose it's status as an ally. we have put up with thier bs for many years from the ring that lead to the selling of nuke technology to the continual support by the ISI/ Government for the most radical muslims in the region.
yes we did use them .but like any "whore", when they become a liability you cut them loose. they are not now and never have been a "friend". it was a financial engagement that should have never been entered into.
They will share the logs after they notify everyone on it that we are coming after them, and after they delete all incriminating evidence on them. Sounds like it's time for another raid, boys.
It's about time that the US Government smack down the Pakistani's. Stop sending money, pull out the troops, and immediately meet any bit of resistance with overpowering firepower. It's about time pipsqueek nations learn their lot in life. And we should immediately blow up their nuclear arsenal.
I gotta question .... if we've had CIA operatives in a rented house, within 500 yards of his compound, for the past three months, .... why was it necessary to go to all of this expense, risking all of these assets, including the loss of this highly secretive "stealth helicopter", when all we would have had to do was launch the attack in the middle of the night from our own "safe house" that was supposedly "unknown".
I don't get it .... something is not being said here.!
Good question ! And now 'our friends' the Pakistanis are sharing the helicopter with the Chinese ! With friends like these we dont need any enemies! ?
Perhaps something to do with the fact that the compound was surrounded by 12 foot walls and that Pakistan was probably well aware of our CIA agents and there would be no way for us to amass the 20 or so people it would have taken to raid the compound. Not to mention the fact, what would they do after they did... how would they escape without a confrontation with Pakistan authorities?
NO DA ! You don't think they'll share? - Maybe we should give them more money?
OR Maybe we should Knock Out their Nukes !
An enemy of my enemy is my friend. That's the kind of relationship between U.S. and Pakistan.
Don't expect to be invited to their house party. We are not that close.
Okay, they wouldn't tell anyone OBL was in Pakistan. They keep outing CIA station chiefs there. They won't share any information not recovered in the SEAL raid. Don't provide any access to OBL's wives for interrogation purposes.
That ought to be worth a raise to over $1 billion in foreign aid next year to these wogs, right?
Really George, whatever we want? have you forgotten just what this mad man did, ever try taking a bible to saudi arabia or pakistan, see what is legal about that. don't utter a bad word about the great mohamed, allah or it is off with your head. is that arrogant, or maybe we just don't understand them. the best thing that could happen is all the oil wells dry up so we do not have to depend on a hate filled bunch of lunatics and their sorry excuse for a god.
did you say they knew they left some journals behind? lets see........25 seals...15 min to enter and kill all opposition.....so that leaves 30 min. to physically carry all paper work and disks to the copters. 25 seals could haul a lot of stuff in 30 min. why did they have to leave anything...? too much to haul? they already got 2 tons of stuff already and ran out of time? no one has said.....what really happened.....is there any secret about this? I don't think we're getting the true story yet.... too much CYA to go around.....lets wait 3 or 4 months and mabey the neighbors will let us know what really happened.....the we can take that to the bank.
The reality is that the US Global War on Terror would be over and done with if the Pakistanis withdraw their support (military, financial, moral, training) of the Taliban. Why won't they do it? Less aid and less attention.
I believe it's all to do with their national security concerns after Uncle Sam pulls out of the region. In other words, they're keeping their options open.
Doesn't necessarily make it right though!
keep your friends close and your enemies closer. usa all the way baby!!
The Central Intelligence Agency had the Osama house under "massively secure surveillance" for more than 6 months, what did the Pakistanis need to share?
President Obama to the Pakistanis 'Don't bogart that joint my friend, pass it over to me.'
How about show us what you have and if it's worth something we'll buy it. We will discontinue all aid untill then.