Osama Bin Laden Worried About Al Qaeda's Image Problem
How do you market a worldwide campaign of mass murder? This question perplexed Osama bin Laden until his death in May, according to a letter recovered from his "hideout" in Pakistan. In the letter, he lamented the fact that Al Qaeda was losing the PR war for hearts and minds after years of negative media coverage. The AP reports that things got so bad that bin Laden even considered renaming the group:
Maybe something like Taifat al-Tawhed Wal-Jihad, meaning Monotheism and Jihad Group, would do the trick, he wrote. Or Jama'at I'Adat al-Khilafat al-Rashida, meaning Restoration of the Caliphate Group.
Just picture for a moment Fox's Megyn Kelly trying to pronounce those names.
It also turns out that bin Laden was frustrated that his brainchild was effectively being run by a bunch of goddamn kids:
Using his courier system, bin Laden could still exercise some operational control over al-Qaida. But increasingly the men he was directing were younger and inexperienced. Frequently, the generals who had vouched for these young fighters were dead or in prison. And bin Laden, unable to leave his walled compound and with no phone or Internet access, was annoyed that he did not know so many people in his own organization.
Ah, such is the life of a micro-managing terrorist mastermind.
[Images via Getty/AP]