Thursday, May 21, 2015

Osama Bin Laden Loved US Think Tanks

This week the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a tranche of documents recovered during the raid of Osama bin Laden's compound.  Among the documents released were 40 think tank and "other studies."

Following is the list of think tank papers that Bin Laden apparently had in his possession:

  • Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, “African Jihad: Al-Qaeda in Darfur”
  • Carnegie Papers, “Pakistan: The Myth of an Islamist Peril” by Frederic Grare (2006)
  • Carnegie Papers, “Islam, Militarism, and the 2007-2008 Elections in Pakistan” by Frederic Grare (2006)
  • Carnegie Papers, “Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations in the Post-9/11 Era” by Frederic Grare (2006)
  • Chatham House, “Al-Qaeda Five Years On” by Maha Azzam (Sept 2006)
  • Chatham House, “Security, Terrorism and the UK” (July 2005)
  • Heritage Foundation, “The Evolving Al-Qaeda Threat” by James Phillips (17 March 2006)
  • Hudson Institute, “Jihad Ideology in Light of Contemporary Fatwas” by Shmuel Bar (August 2006)
  • Jamestown Foundation, Report on Turkish Arms Industry (June 2008)
  • Jamestown Foundation, Terrorism Focus (issues from 8 Jan 2008, 1 July 2008, 16 July 2008, 23 July 2008, 5 Aug 2008, 2 Sept 2008, 10 Sept 2008, 18 Sept 2008, 24 Sept 2008, 1 Oct 2008, 22 Oct 2008, 30 Oct 2008, 5 Nov 2008, 21 Jan 2009, 19 Feb 2009, 25 Feb 2009)
  • Jamestown Foundation, Terrorism Monitor (issues from 2 Nov 2006, 2 Feb 2007, 7 March 2008, 24 March 2008, 3 Apr 2008, 17 Apr 2008, 1 May 2008, 15 May 2008, 29 May 2008, 12 June 2008, 26 June 2008, 10 July 2008, 25 July 2008, 29 July 2008, 11 Aug 2008, 4 Sept 2008, 22 Sept 2008, 24 Oct 2008, 9 Jan 2009, 10 Feb 2009, 3 March 2009, 7 March 2009, 13 March 2009, 14 Jan 2010, 11 March 2010, 19 March 2010)
  • RAND, Beyond Al-Qaeda (Parts 1 and 2)
  • RAND, Combating Al-Qaeda and the Militant Islamic Threat by Bruce Hoffman
  • RAND, Rethinking Counterinsurgency (2008)
  • RAND, Al-Qaeda: Trends in Terrorism and Future Potentialities by Bruce Hoffman (2003)

Out of the think tank reports, Jamestown Foundation's seemed to have been the most widely read, followed by reports from RAND Corporation (4), Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (3), and Chatham House (2).  Bin Laden had possession of only one think tank paper from each of the following think tanks: Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, Heritage Foundation, and the Hudson Institute

Bin Laden seems to have been one of the few people actually reading think tank reports...