IC Releases Final Abbottabad Documents
Today marks the end of a two-and-a-half-year effort to declassify several hundred documents recovered in the raid on Usama bin Laden’s Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound in May 2011.
This final batch of documents mirrors themes in previous releases, including bin Laden’s:
- Focus on the United States and the West as the primary enemy
- Hatred, suspicion of Iran and a foreboding forecast of a major Sunni-Shia clash
- Criticism of the ISIL (then al-Qa’ida in Iraq) brand of terrorism, cautioning against undisciplined targeting and the importance of gaining support, consensus-building, and providing for the needs of a populace before declaring an Islamic State