Washington : An al-Qaeda document recovered by US Navy SEALs from the Abbottabad hideout of Osama bin Laden describes the 2008 Mumbai terror attack by Pakistan-based LeT terrorists as a “heroic Fidai” operation and the one at German Bakery in Pune as a “beautiful huge” bombing.
The 15-page document “Terror Franchise: THE UNSTOPPABLE ASSASSIN”, originally in English, also lists the Mumbai terror attack as one of the “blessed” operations. This suggests that Laden was very much aware of the Mumbai terror attack and his machinery touted it as one of the success stories to be emulated by other al-Qaeda affiliate groups globally.
‘‘Following the London bombing, there were several blessed operation against American and European targets in Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, India and elsewhere, such as the brave bombing of a bus carrying French nationals, the Marriott hotel massive bombing, the bombing of the Denmark embassy in Islamabad, the massive Bali bombings, and lately the heroic Fidai (martyrdom) operations in Bombay — India’s economical capital — in which several western targets were struck and in which many Americans and other westerners were killed,” the document reads.
“Following that, was the beautiful huge bombing — also in India — of the western German bakery mainly visited by Jews and western nationals,” it said about the 2010 blast that was carried out two years after the Mumbai attack.
All this is among the large tranche of documents recovered by the US from the compound of the house where Laden was hiding. US intelligence officials have described these documents as a treasure trove of information
“The mission of the Global Mujahideen is to destroy the American economy by targeting American economic targets globally,” a portion of these documents says, many of which are in Arabic. These have been declassified and translated into English by Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
They shed new light on the mindset of Al-Qaeda’s founder, his debates over tactics, his anxiety over Western spying and his fixation with the group’s media image.
The release of the documents came shortly after US journalist Seymour Hersh alleged that Washington’s official account of the hunt for Bin Laden and the raid that led to his death was a lie.
But CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani said the declassification had been long planned and had not been intended as a response to Hersh’s report.
