The Office of the Director of National Intelligence wants to close the book on Osama bin Laden’s documents, but the public has been given access to only 620 items in a cache of more than one million documents and files.
The creation of the Chief of Staff Committee is one way al Qaeda has ensured that it can adapt to US counterterrorism operations designed to kill key leaders and operatives.
In a letter written sometime in 2010 to al Qaeda’s leadership, AQAP emir Nasir al Wuhayshi detailed the areas in Yemen where the group had significant influence. AQAP took control of many of these areas in a 2011 offensive.
Several months before his death in May 2011, Osama bin Laden ordered al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb to stand down with respect to hostage negotiations. The terror master said he would negotiate with France concerning AQIM’s hostages. Mokhtar Belmokhtar’s spokesman recently confirmed that he still answers to al Qaeda central.