US to release some of Osama trove, says official

Washington: Some of the documents US Navy commandos had seized from al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan will be released this week, a top Obama administration official said on Monday.

"In documents we seized,he (Osama) confessed to 'disaster after disaster'. He even urged his leaders to flee the tribal regions, and go to places, 'away from aircraft photography and bombardment'," Deputy National Security Adviser to President Barack Obama, John Brennan said while announcing the release of the trove.

US commandos had gathered the documents when they raided Osama's hideout in Pakistan's Abbottabad on May 2 last year. The intelligence officials after analysing the sized documents had learned that Osama was facing trouble replacing commanders killed in US operations, the top White House counterterror official said on the eve of the anniversary of Osama's death.

"With its most skilled and experienced commanders being lost so quickly, al-Qaeda has had trouble replacing them. This is one of the many conclusions we have been able to draw from documents seized at bin Laden's compound, some of which will be published online, for the first time, this week by West Point's Combating Terrorism Center," Brennan said.

For example, Osama worried about and I quote "the rise of lower leaders who are not as experienced and this would lead to the repeat of mistakes," he said in his remarks at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a Washington-based think tank.

Al Qaeda leaders continue to struggle to communicate with subordinates and affiliates, he said adding under intense pressure in the tribal regions of Pakistan, they have fewer places to train and groom the next generation of operatives.

"They're struggling to attract new recruits. Morale is low, with intelligence indicating that some members are giving up and returning home, no doubt aware that this is a fight they will never win. In short, al Qaeda is losing, badly. And bin Laden knew it," Brennan said.

For all these reasons, it is harder than ever for the al-Qaeda core in Pakistan to plan and execute large-scale, potentially catastrophic attacks against our homeland, he said adding that today, it is increasingly clear that compared to 9/11 the core al Qaeda leadership is a shadow of its former self.

"Al-Qaeda has been left with just a handful of capable leaders and operatives, and with continued pressure is on the path to its destruction. And for the first time since this fight began, we can look ahead and envision a world in which the al Qaeda core is simply no longer relevant," he argued.

A year after the death of Osama bin Laden, Brenna said the US had always been clear that the end of bin Laden will neither mark the end of al Qaeda, nor its resolve to destroy it.

"In Pakistan, al-Qaeda's leadership ranks have continued to suffer heavy losses. This includes Ilyas Kashmiri, one of al Qaeda's top operational planners, killed a month after bin Laden.

It includes Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, killed when he succeeded Ayman al-Zawahiri as al-Qaeda s deputy leader. It includes Younis al-Mauritani, a planner of attacks against the US and Europe until he was captured by Pakistani forces," he said.