Osama bin Laden’s Files: The Pakistani government wanted to negotiate

[Valin]

Long War Journal:

Thomas Joscelyn

March 9th, 2015

 

Recently released files recovered in Osama bin Laden’s compound show that parts of the Pakistani government made attempts to negotiate with al Qaeda in 2010. The letters were released as evidence in the trial of Abid Naseer, who was convicted on terrorism charges by a Brooklyn jury earlier this month.

One of the files is a letter written by Atiyah Abd al Rahman (“Mahmud”), who was then the general manager of al Qaeda, to Osama bin Laden (identified as Sheikh Abu Abdallah) in July 2010. The letter reveals a complicated game involving al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban, the brother of Pakistan’s current prime minister, and Pakistan’s intelligence service.

 

“Regarding the negotiations, dear Sheikh, I will give you an overview, may God support me in this,” Rahman wrote. “The Pakistani enemy has been corresponding with us and with Tahreek-i-Taliban (Hakeemullah) for a very short time, since the days of Hafiz, may God have mercy on him.” Hakeemullah Mehsud was the head of the Pakistani Taliban at the time. The “Hafiz” mentioned is Mustafa Abu Yazid (Sheikh Saeed al Masri), who served as al Qaeda’s general manager prior to his death in May 2010. Rahman succeeded Yazid in that role.

 

“We discussed the matter internally, then we talked with Abu-Muhammad later once we were able to resume correspondence with him,” Rahman explained. “Abu-Muhammad” is the nom de guerre of Ayman al Zawahiri. As a result of these discussions, al Qaeda was willing to broker a deal in which the jihadists’ would ease off the Pakistanis so long as the military and intelligence services stopped fighting al Qaeda and its allies.

 

(Snip)

 

More files need to be released to tell the whole story. Just two dozen documents out of the more than one million captured during the bin Laden raid have been made public.

 

Still, there are hints of even more nefarious connections in the small set of documents released thus far.

 

The letters introduced as evidence in Naseer’s trial confirm that the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment considers prominent al Qaeda-allied jihadists, such as HUM leader Fazlur Rehman Khalil, to be acceptable partners. And the Pakistanis knew that to get in touch with al Qaeda’s senior leadership all they needed to do was reach out to men such as Khalil.

 

Indeed, previous accounts indicate that a cellphone recovered from bin Laden’s courier revealed contacts with HUM commanders. [see LWJ report, Bin Laden’s courier tied to Pakistani-backed terror group.]

 

Some of Pakistan’s jihadist proxies are also al Qaeda’s closest allies.