Released bin Laden papers show Al-Qaeda with Israel in its sights

Documents call for use of drugs to infiltrate Israeli security and subvert soldiers, and urge Jerusalem Christians to convert to Islam

By GREG TEPPER

Al-Qaeda considered the use of drugs to infiltrate Israel’s borders and security infrastructure, thought of the Arab Spring as a positive development, called on Christians in Israel to convert to Islam, and slammed the Mubarak regime for its relations with Israel in newly declassified papers found by US commandos in Osama bin Laden’s Pakistan compound.

The documents, written by a number of high-level al-Qaeda operatives, offer a glimpse into the thinking and views of the world’s most wanted terrorist and his cohorts.

This and more was revealed Thursday through translated Al-Qaeda documents released by the West Point Combating Terrorism Center. The 17 declassified documents, released by the West Point Combating Terrorism Center Thursday, make numerous references to Israel, Jews, and the Jewish state’s relationship with Arab leaders.

The 197 pages of documents, translated from Arabic, were captured in the Abbottabad raid that resulted in the death of bin Laden.

The compound where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was caught and killed, in Abbottabad, Pakistan (photo credit: AP/Anjum Naveed)

The internal communications were authored between 2006 and 2011 by several leaders, including bin Ladin, Atiyya Abd al-Rahman, Abu Yahya al-Libi and the American Adam Gadahn, as well as several others, according to the report.

On Egypt, the Arab Spring and relations with Israel

Following the Egyptian revolution which ousted Western-allied President Hosni Mubarak, a letter was written that was highly critical of Mubarak and his regime and heavily supportive of the revolutionaries throughout the Arab world. Al-Qaeda found the Arab Spring to be an important and positive development.

Greetings were offered to “the free and honorable people who erupted in Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen, and those who rose up and resisted the corrupt rulers, the corrupters, the Zionist Arabs, the fighters of Islam…the collaborators with Israel…the imposers of the siege on Gaza while supplying Nile water and gas to Israel, and the deniers of medical treatment and trade in Egypt for the people of Gaza, while allowing tens of thousands of Israelis to enter Sinai without a visa to commit immorality in order to fill the pockets of the greatest criminals with this illegitimate money,” one document read.

Israel and Egypt have recently seen tensions rise over gas agreements and security warnings concerning travel to Sinai have become more severe since the revolution.

The same letter accused Egypt of being “defeatist in front of Israel,” an attitude that has been expressed recently among Egyptian politicians.

Protesters clash with Egyptian military outside the Defense Ministry in Cairo on Thursday. (photo credit: AP)

The US and Western leaders are accused in the letter of “asking for an orderly and controlled transition that would allow change of faces, and perhaps regime, but would maintain the current policies…. that fight Islam and demote Shari’a.” The letter concludes by saying that the West desires a continuation of a policy “that ensures the survival of Israel, continues the pressure on the Palestinian people in Gaza and elsewhere in order to give in to the Israeli aspirations and accept a government headed by compromisers and defeatists, and ensures the continuation of the Zionist project for the destruction of al-Aqsa and the Judaization of Palestine.”

The letters suggest Al-Qaeda was paying very close attention to developments in Egypt and commenting on what was considered to be a sell-out policy that benefited the West and its interests at the cost of Arab and Islamic pride and self-interest.

Additional writings addressed treaties and Sinai as well as the security of southern Israel, offering heavy criticism of the Egyptian military, the same military that has been heavily criticized of late by Islamist elements in Egypt.

“From the American perspective, the leadership of the Egyptian Army is the guarantor of the surrender treaties with Israel and cooperation treaties with the US, the guarantor that Sinai will continue to be demilitarized, and the guarantor of the safety of the southern Israeli border and the continuation of the siege on Gaza,” one document suggests.

On Jerusalem and Christians

One letter made note of Jerusalem, calling on Arab Christians to convert to Islam and warning them them away “from cooperating with invader enemies of Islam who oppose the Islamic State.” The letter said that Arab Christians “should welcome the Islamic advance, as did their forefathers when the Muslims liberated Jerusalem during the time of ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab,” who captured Jerusalem from the Byzantines in 637.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren recently noted that Christians are being forced to leave the West Bank due to Islamic fanaticism, telling60 Minutes in an interview, “Christian communities throughout the Middle East, are being oppressed and massacred,” in defense of Israel’s treatment of Christians under its control.

On funding Fatah, other jihadist organizations, Israeli soldiers and drugs

Some of the writing follows a question/answer format, with the following being posed: “Is it permitted for funds to be taken from other organizations as support for us in jihad.” It then mentions Al-Jihad al-Islami, with Iran as a benefactor, which offered “funding to us, in exchange for which we are to work with them.”

The same letter then states that “Fatah … has also offered us funds purportedly to [support] jihad, but there is another reason, namely their fear of becoming the target of our swords. These funds would go directly towards the purchase and manufacture of weapons, and to support operations which conduct, God willing. When taking into consideration the suffocating siege against us, whether by the Jews, God’s curses upon them, or by other organizations such as Hamas, who fear the growth of our influence and dominion….”

The Israel-Egypt border (photo credit: Yuval Nadal/Flash90)

On the subject of drugs, the same letter asks questions pertaining to the use of drugs in order to do harm to Jews and Israel. Al-Qaeda saw drugs and the drug market as very real methods for infiltrating Israel and affecting security.

“Is it permitted to strike drug traffickers, eliminate them, and kill them,” as well as, “Is it permitted to take the funds which they have gained from drug trafficking” and make use of drugs obtained from them while: 1. Luring fallen addicts to serve as double agents against the Jews. 2. Selling them to Jews in order to harm them and take their money. 3. Bringing down Jewish soldiers, particularly border guards, by means of drugs.”

On PR and the people’s awareness, and the Mavi Marmara

Other writings stress the importance of communications, citing the Mavi Marmara incident in which Israeli commandos killed members of a “freedom flotilla” attempting to reach Gaza when they attacked soldiers while they were boarding a ship.

“The purpose is for the Mujahidin publications to be a good
potential for the competition and to gain the crowds. The main
goal is to spread awareness amongst the people of the nation, to
rescue them from the aberration of the rulers,” a document reads.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/89314/