Will leaves fortune to jihad
washington » In his hand-written will, al- Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden claimed he had about $ 29 million in personal wealth — the bulk of which he wanted to be used “on jihad, for the sake of Allah.”
The will was released Tuesday in a batch of more than 100 documents seized in a May 2011 raid that killed bin Laden at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
The al- Qaeda leader planned to divide his fortune among his relatives, but wanted most of it spent to conduct the work of the Islamic terrorist terror network behind 9/ 11. The will did not disclose much detail about where he amassed his wealth, but bin Laden’s father ran a successful construction company in Saudi Arabia for years, and the will noted that $ 12 million was fromhis brother on behalf of the Bin Laden Co.
The threat of sudden death also worried other family members.
“If I amto be killed,” a bin Laden son wrote to his father in a 2008 letter, “pray for me a lot and give continuous charities in my name, as I will be in great need for support to reach the permanent home.” The letter was signed, “Your son, Sa’ad Bin Usama,” according to the U.S. translation from Arabic.
The letters were included in a batch of documents released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. They address a range of topics, including fractures between al- Qaeda and al- Qaeda in Iraq, which eventually splintered off into what is now known as the Islamic State terrorist group; and bin Laden’s concerns about his organization’s public image and his desire to depict it as a united network.
In a letter to one of his wives who had been living in Iran, bin Laden expressed worry that her visit to a dentist could have presented the Iranians an opportunity to implant a small chip under her skin, apparently as a tracking device.
“My dear wife,” he began. “I was told that you went to a dentist in Iran, and you were concerned about a filling she put infor you. Please let me knowin detail ... any suspicions that any of the brothers may have about chips planted in anyway.”
The Iranian dentist might have used a slightly enlarged syringe to make such an implant, bin Laden wrote in the letter. The U.S. translation is undated.
“The size of the chip is about the length of a grain of wheat and the width of a fine piece of vermicelli,” bin Laden said. He asked her to recall the exact date of her dental work and “also about any surgery you had, even if it was only a quick pinch.”
In another letter, addressed to “The Islamic Community in General,” bin Laden offered an upbeat assessment of progress in his holy war since 9/11 and of U.S. failings in Afghanistan. The letter is undated but appears to have been written in 2010.
“Here we are in the 10th year of thewar, and America and its allies are still chasing a mirage, lost at sea without a beach,” he wrote. “They thought that the war would be easy and that they would accomplish their objectives in a few days or a few weeks, and they did not prepare for it financially, and there is no popular support that would enable it to carry on a war for a decade or more. The sons of Islam have opposed them and stood between them and their plans and objectives.”
Bin Laden sought to portray the U.S. as hopelessly mired in a nun winnable war in Afghanistan.
“We need to be patient a bit longer,” he wrote. “With patience, there is victory!”