So we may have had 103 documents released today, but what about the rest? American officials claim they seized somewhere in the region of 3 terabytes of data from the Abbottabad compound. Almost all of it remains classified. Bill Roggio and Thomas Joscelyn make a sensible case for releasing almost all (presumably with the exception of anything representing a clear threat to national security) over at The Long War Journal, pointing out that there is much that we still don't understand about al-Qaeda.
OpinionThis is no small matter. The contents of Osama bin Laden’s files are invaluable for understanding our jihadist enemies. Consider that prior to the Abbottabad raid, the CIA believed that bin Laden had given up day to day operational control of al-Qaeda. The agency believed that Ayman al Zawahiri had assumed total managerial responsibility. Only after reviewing bin Laden’s files did the CIA realize that this assumption was false. Bin Laden was still very much in charge. US intelligence officials have publicly confirmed that they misjudged bin Laden’s role.
There are no plans to release the pornography apparently found at bin Laden's Abbottabad hideaway. Brian Hale, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, told Raf Sanchez that the pornography would remain classified even as other parts of bin Laden's personal files were released. You can read the whole story here.
QuoteWe have no plans to release that at this point in time. Due to the nature of the content the decision was made not to release it.
A few commentators have pointed out that many of the papers are already public while others are similar to statements recorded by Osama bin Laden and disseminated by al-Qaeda. Could it be that this is a hastily assembled dump of material with little strategic value? JM Berger, author of Isis: State of Terror, rather seems to think so....
Ref: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
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