Bin Laden documents: Media strategist and critic
By Jamie Crawford
The 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks provided al Qaeda a platform from which to reshape its image in the global media, Osama bin Laden wrote in documents recovered from his compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan. The documents provide a glimpse of the al Qaeda leader as media opportunist and critic.
"We need to benefit from this (anniversary) and get our messages to the Muslims and celebrate our victory that they achieved," bin Laden wrote to his confidant and al Qaeda operative Atiyya Abdul Rahman in October 2010. "We will have a lot to show, therefore we should not depend on one media outlet to cover the event."
Read: Security Clearance's coverage of the Osama bin Laden documents
In his letter, bin Laden said his group should contact both the Arabic and English speaking networks of Al Jazeera if they were interested, and to cooperate in their coverage of the anniversary. But the familiar outlets were not the only targets of his message.
"We should also look for an American channel that can be close to being unbiased, such as CBS, or other channel that has political motives" that make it interested in discussing al Qaeda. "Then we can send to the channel the materials that we want the Americans to see."
Having taped a specific message to the United States on the 9/11 anniversary, bin Laden wrote of his hope for the message "to be translated to English and to be delivered to the Al Jazeera channel prior to the anniversary of 9/11 to be broadcasted during it."
The letters also display a savvy with the timing of announcements directed at the United States.
In one of his letters to Rahman, bin Laden enclosed a computer chip that contained a "statement to the American people" that he wanted delivered to various news organizations, including an American outlet.
"Tell the brothers that this statement should be broadcast before the American congressional election," he wrote. "Tell the three channels that we want to broadcast the statement on October 29. If the channels do not broadcast the statements, the brothers should be ready to broadcast it on the Internet on October 30."
The terror leader told Rahman to speak with Adam Gadahn, the American-born al Qaeda spokesman, for specifics about which American outlet to reach out to.
In a separate letter released Thursday, Gadahn's opinions of American media were on display.
"From the professional point of view," Gadahn wrote to the unknown recipient, "they are all on one level - except (Fox News) Channel which falls into the abyss as you know, and lacks neutrality, too." Gadahn wrote that CNN "seems to be in cooperation with the government more than the others" but praised its Arabic language website.
"I used to think MSNBC channel may be good and neutral a bit, but it has lately fired two of the most famous journalists."
Gadahn lamented about Al Jazeera following the requirements and restrictions that Western media observe with the broadcast of al Qaeda statements.
Beyond savvy and strategy, bin Laden's take on the media also contained a fair dose of criticism throughout the 17 documents released.
"The enemies have focused the bulk of their campaign against the Islamic world (and) the Arabs," bin Laden wrote, citing BBC's Arabic service as being the second-largest behind its English service. "This, when Arabs represent 2.5% of the world's population, while other people, including China by itself, represent a fifth of the world's population."
Even Al Jazeera came in for criticism from bin Laden because a host on one of its shows occasionally used improper language, in his opinion.
But for all its faults in the eyes of al Qaeda, Al Jazeera was seen as a network not to upset.
Al Jazeera "has a different agenda than ours," a letter believed to be authored by bin Laden stated. "It would be better for us to stay neutral, even though this channel sometimes commits mistakes against us. These mistakes are limited, and if we confront it, Al Jazeera will raise propaganda against us and could hurt our image within the Muslim world."
@natlsecuritycnn on Twitter
This can be a very amazing powerful resource that you’re offering and you just provide it away cost-free!! I really like discovering websites ones view the particular importance of supplying you with a superb learning resource for zero cost. We truly dearly loved examining this page. Appreciate it!
http://www.imdb.com/
tiffany blue women nike frees running shoes Tiffany Blue Nike Free Runs Walmart has made it known that Toys R Us is one of the next retailers they want to put out of business. Will they succeed? Who knows. What is known, however is that Toys R Us has some great deals..
nike store black friday tiffany blue nike free runs on sale So the day before the sales buy the newspaper and research the ads, and remember, just because it is listed in the ad does not mean it is on sale. Also, many of the ads are already posted on-line so you can start your list today. Figure out which stores you want to shop , what time they are open and make a list of what you want to get at each store.
nike black friday black friday Nike free run No matter if you use video games for fun, learning or teaching, there is virtually no end to the ways you can benefit from them. Getting smarter, faster and more adept at nearly anything is easy and exciting with video gaming. Hopefully this article helps you take your play to a higher level!.
black friday nike Nike Black Friday 2014 Toys for Tots/Central Services. I know many shoppers do pick up toys for Toys for Tots on Black Friday. The Mall has a drop-off point.
nike black friday sale http://www.tripurainfo.com/info/nike/?keyword=nike+store+black+friday The holidays are creeping up, and retailers are pumping out the Pre-Black Friday ads like crazy. Target released their Black Friday ad late last night, November 9th, and anxious shoppers are already hopping on it as evidenced by Google searches. In addition to its in-store Black Friday sale, Target is getting a jump start on Christmas shopping early this year with their online Thanksgiving Day sale..
nike free run men black tiffany blue nike free run womens Ricky Stanzi matured this season with the Iowa Hawkeyes. His accuracy increased and he had a much better touchdowns to interceptions ratio. Stanzi threw 25 touchdowns and 6 interceptions this season.
nike mens free run 2 black nike free run 3 tiffany blue Right about the time that ArenaBowl XXIV is in the books, college football begins. I'm a huge fan of your alma mater, Mr. Feely: the Michigan Wolverines.
nike free run 5.0 red and black nike free run 3 grey and black Patrick Peterson became the No. 5 pick by the Arizona Cardinals in the 2011 NFL Draft. Peterson was a cornerback for LSU and could really be a shutdown cornerback for Arizona right away.
nike free run 3.0 tiffany blue nike free run tiffany blue for sale The Winner: I like the Cardinals in close game. I think the Colts have three things going in their favor for this match up. 1.
womens pink nike free run nike free run pink womens I wouldn't sleep on the Panthers at this point. This team is very underrated in my opinion. We'll find out if I'm wrong in the coming weeks.
Thanks to show me this photograph, sorry my computer do not have space for this photo, I am not even wnat waste my time to take a look this photo.
Good bye forever
President Obama did a wonderful job in manikg this successful! This president is very effective and loves justice. He has made America proud once again. I will vote for him ten times over and over again! Bin laden was the leader of a terrible organization. They killed innocent people all over the world! I am happy about this.
Jaime Crawford's article about OBL's media savy is very informative, scary and laughable... when you read even our brutal enemies think FOX news is nothing more than beautiful blond pundits and ideolog pitchmen like Hannity and Bill "O" slanting so far right that even their valid points of view are not taken seriously.
Informative in the sense that some Americans may be led to believe that because of OBL's propensity to reside in caves without modern luxuries and wears what appeared to be an XXL potato sack that he does not understand our media culture and how it affects his cause. In reality he probably understood it better than most Americans. He had knowledge of the firing of 2 prominent journalists from MSNBC, one without a doubt being Keith Olberman who is as smart, innovative and controversial journalist as there is in the business. Just ask Al Gore....His accurate perception of FOX, please see my comments in the opening paragraph. Finally is his critique of the AL J network. He had a great understanding of which American media outlet could pontificate his message without us and the organization even realizing it.
Scary in the sense that what this brutal man did on 9/11 and continued to try and do again was nothing that most semi intelligent leaders with a message, an audience and a method to deliver his message could replicate in the future.
As a whole the American public continues to under estimate our enemies and their capabilities. Because of this ignorance we will unfortunatley not have to wait long for another OBL to surface again.
Will illegal drug use ever stop?
– If illegal drug use will never stop, then there will always be financial incentive to sell these drugs on the black market
– If there is financial incentive, criminal organizations will always coalesce to tap the market
– If criminal organizations exist, they will always use bats and bullets to grow more powerful and weaken their competition (leaving tens of thousands of dead bodies in their wake)
If you simultaneously killed every single drug cartel member, that doesn't decrease the financial incentive to sell drugs. Therefore, you'll just wind up with a whole new set of criminal organizations to take over that market. Its an endless cycle...
Drug use is a social and medical issue. Not a criminal issue. The only thing prohibition does is allow a black market to get ridiculously rich (and of course, it leads to tons of unnecessary deaths)
The ONLY way you can ever stop drug cartels for good is to legalize drugs.
As long as we remain a nation of hypocrites, this will never happen.
The last thing to go through Bin Laden's mind was an American made bullet, fired from an American made gun, wielded by an American special forces operative, under the order of America's President, for the American people. Irony there.
Financed (in part) by those dirty commies, the Chinese.
hey us government produce the body
proof or it didnt happen
sorry but the claim that he was dumped in the ocean is dubious at best
especially after parading saddam and gaddafhis corpse for everyone to see
Hey habeas corpus,
Maybe you should just go ask his wives whether he's dead or not.
Always amazes me how muslim extremist align themselves with the muslim religion and then divide themselves from the rest of the world. Its actually the muslim extremist against peaceful loving muslims and the rest of the world.
There is no such a thing as 'peaceful loving muslims'. They are all murderers who want to bring their barbarian religion to all four corners of the world.
Another mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragger proudly shows the rest of us how stupid he is. Well done!
Now where is the sheep sex channel? Hahahahahahaha
Thanks for the laughs.
I hear someone claims to have found Bin Laden's body. Gross.
Your image looks good now!
The truth is out. Bin Laden was afraid of Al Jazeera!. The pen is mightier than the sword!
10 Kill Bin Laden
20 Go To 10
30 Kill Bin Laden
40 Go To 30
50 End.
😉
You created an infinite loop between 10 and 20 therefore 30, 40 and 50 would happen. Plus if you kill Bin Laden how can you do it again?
Oops. i meant to say "would never happen"
You forgot "Hello World"!
Must be from India. Can't program for shlt.
Government Insider Says George W. Bush Planned and Authorized the 9/11 Attacks...
Stanley Hilton was a senior adviser to Sen Bob Dole and he has represented hundreds of families of 9/11 victims in a law suit against GWB for treason and mass murder!
Go to http://www.rense.com/general57/aale.htm for full details!
Better properly vet and know the character and personality of your republican candidates before you cast your vote! Just remember its your future and your children's future at stake!
Your tinfoil hat appears to have a tear in it. You should fix that before the government starts to steal your thoughts.
Hey!, a 'tin-foil hat' analogy. How original. Whattaya gonna do for an encore – tell him to stop drinking the Kool-Aid?
Ah a Kool-Aid analogy – what are YOU going to do for an encore?
I see that comprehensions not your thing.
Got rid of Bin Laden. Now we need to deal a big blow to the Republican party and their leaders Osama Big Money.
"The 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks" was the date of the Toronto Hearings. But CNN didn't tell you about them, did it?
http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/testify/
Isaac is a fraud. Some a$$hole just trying to get Americans to hate Israel. Ignore his ignorant comments and he will go back to way hung his internet porn in his mom's garage.
That is "watching porn". Damn spellchecker.
The man is dead the great fishes had already forgotten the smell and the taste of his fleash. Let his memories be burried with him in the deep sea.
These comments are almost as retarded as Reddit
Israel is the most endangered, we need aid NOW!!
DIDN’T YOU READ?? THEY ARE TAKING MONEY FROM IRAN!!!
PUT BOOTS IN IRAN AND PROTECT ISRAEL NOW!!!
Israel comes first.
If the Arab race has to be destroyed to prevent another Jewish slaughter, so be it.
In case you didn't get the message the first time..
I see that your old-age home in Florida has internet. How lovely.
Osama obama bin laden was on the payroll in the 80's. The MEEK shall inherit the earth, betcha. Not the new world disorder
He is still, though not active but after Abbottabad operation, a dormant character in US conceived New World Order or in older version The Great Game, as no body here believe in what USA force the world to believe. Osama was was and is CIA guy and he has safely been shifted to USA after a turn in his role in the US staged drama in this region. After all Osama was the prime suspect in the 9/11 then why CIA remained hesitant in showing his dead body to the world ?
Two things that I don't like about it from an arilcte I read is that he was identified using facial recognition and when asked if they had confirmed a dna test they didn't answer. 2nd that due to islamic beliefs, his body was already buried at sea.Interesting tidbit I heard on the radio today was that both bin laden and hitler were both announced dead on May 1st.Overall, I hope that SEAL Team Six really did get the kill and that this isn't a early celebration and that the dna test comes back negative.
Guess its all barry can say, he was pres when laden was allegedly killed. All these bin laden headlines, oh hail barry the hero, NOT! Everything he does proves hes the worst enemy america has had in a long time. ROMNEY 2012!
Did you allegedly make it through the 3rd grade?
Only when he's on top of one.
HEY TERRORISTS! this is what you have come to just sitting waiting wondering will it be a drone that kills me, will it be a special ops team that kills me or just maybe just maybe I'm losing my mind, always sounds like footsteps, always sounds like the sound of a weapon (44 magnum) just sayin being cocked next to my temple no the front of my fohead. Then all of a suDDen BOOM! ROCK A BYE BABY complete blackness. This is the reality of what happens when you Mess with the United States and Allies. Now if you take a shower, brush your nasty mouth, shave, burn your religion and get a new outfit nothin expensive sweats or shorts t-shirt fine some tennis shoes. We might be able to work somthin out.
Best get back to your Playstation.
Issac, if your comment is what Israelis truly believe then they have become the new Nazis. Destroy and entire race because of the actions of some of them???!!!
Yes sir. Yahweh permits the killing of hostile goyim, when prescribed legal by Rabbinical authority
The Arab and Persian peoples are candidates for ceremonial ethnic purification.
The Torah is the law if Israel.
And Israel comes first.
Fight genocide with genocide, I always say.
Israel is the most endangered, we need aid NOW!!
DIDN’T YOU READ?? THEY ARE TAKING MONEY FROM IRAN!!!
PUT BOOTS IN IRAN AND PROTECT ISRAEL NOW!!!
Israel comes first.
If the Arab race has to be destroyed to prevent another Jewish slaughter, so be it.
I can't tell if you are trolling, or just stupid...