New Abbottabad Documents Released in Trial of Abid Naseer

In the trial of Abid Naseer, the U.S. Department of Justice released a trove of new files recovered from Osama bin Laden's compound during the May 2011 raid by U.S. Navy Seals that ended in his death. Seventeen of the documents were released in 2012. Those previously released documents painted a picture of a bin Laden that had largely been sidelined by regional groups that he was unable to control. According to CNN's Peter Bergen, the new documents describe an al Qaeda that "understood it had severe problems resulting from the CIA drone program" and that as a result, senior group leaders were considering relocating to new hideouts in Afghanistan and Iran. Under pressure from the CIA and other Western intelligence services, one strategist recommended that terrorist resort to executing attacks using the "simplest things such as household knives, gas tanks, fuel, diesel." The documents even show evidence that al Qaeda attempted to strike a truce with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, but ultimately nothing came of their efforts. It's an incredible document set that provides invaluable information on the decline of al Qaeda and its attempts to regain momentum in the fight against the United States. You can read the rest of Bergen's summary here, or view the full document set below.