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US to release some Osama files soon
The United States has decided to selectively release some of the documents seized during its dramatic commando operation that killed Osama bin Laden in his Pakistani hideout in Abbottabad a year ago.
Additionally, a horde of documents discovered by German cryptologists is reported to reveal how some of Al Qaeda’s deadly plots were concealed in a porn video called “Kick Ass” and file marked “Sexy Tanja”. One major plot was to seize cruise ships in Europe for a major carnage.
The documents also detail the problems faced by Al Qaeda to find new recruits to replace its operatives killed by the US. “In documents we seized, he (Osama) confessed to “disaster after disaster”. He even urged his leaders to flee the tribal regions, and go to places, “away from aircraft photography and bombardment”,” Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan said on Monday.
Obtaining access to details of some of the secret documents, CNN reported that some of them shed light on future plots that Al Qaeda had planned, including one to seize and attack European cruise ships.
“Hundreds of documents were discovered by German cryptologists embedded inside a pornographic movie on a memory disk belonging to a suspected al Qaeda operative arrested in Berlin last year,” it said. Details were first reported by ‘Die Zeit’, the German newspaper.
On May 16 last year, a 22-year-old Austrian named Maqsood Lodin was being questioned by police in Berlin after his return from Pakistan via Budapest, Hungary, and then travelling overland to Germany.
“His interrogators were surprised to find that hidden in his underpants were a digital storage device and memory cards.
Buried inside them was a pornographic video called ‘Kick Ass’ — and a file marked ‘Sexy Tanja’,” CNN reported.
“Several weeks later, after laborious efforts to crack a password and software to make the file almost invisible, German investigators discovered encoded inside the actual video a treasure trove of intelligence — more than 100 al Qaeda documents that included an inside track on some of the terror group’s most audacious plots and a road map for future operations,” it said.
“Future plots include the idea of seizing cruise ships and carrying out attacks in Europe similar to the gun attacks by Pakistani militants that paralyzed the Indian city of Mumbai in November 2008,” the cable network reported, adding terrorist training manuals in PDF format in German, English and Arabic were among the documents as well.
US intelligence sources have been quoted as saying that the documents uncovered are “pure gold”. This is reckoned to be the most important haul of Al Qaeda materials, besides those found from bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad last year.
The United States has decided to selectively release some of the documents seized during its dramatic commando operation that killed Osama bin Laden in his Pakistani hideout in Abbottabad a year ago.
Additionally, a horde of documents discovered by German cryptologists is reported to reveal how some of Al Qaeda’s deadly plots were concealed in a porn video called “Kick Ass” and file marked “Sexy Tanja”. One major plot was to seize cruise ships in Europe for a major carnage.
The documents also detail the problems faced by Al Qaeda to find new recruits to replace its operatives killed by the US. “In documents we seized, he (Osama) confessed to “disaster after disaster”. He even urged his leaders to flee the tribal regions, and go to places, “away from aircraft photography and bombardment”,” Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan said on Monday.
Obtaining access to details of some of the secret documents, CNN reported that some of them shed light on future plots that Al Qaeda had planned, including one to seize and attack European cruise ships.
“Hundreds of documents were discovered by German cryptologists embedded inside a pornographic movie on a memory disk belonging to a suspected al Qaeda operative arrested in Berlin last year,” it said. Details were first reported by ‘Die Zeit’, the German newspaper.
On May 16 last year, a 22-year-old Austrian named Maqsood Lodin was being questioned by police in Berlin after his return from Pakistan via Budapest, Hungary, and then travelling overland to Germany.
“His interrogators were surprised to find that hidden in his underpants were a digital storage device and memory cards.
Buried inside them was a pornographic video called ‘Kick Ass’ — and a file marked ‘Sexy Tanja’,” CNN reported.
“Several weeks later, after laborious efforts to crack a password and software to make the file almost invisible, German investigators discovered encoded inside the actual video a treasure trove of intelligence — more than 100 al Qaeda documents that included an inside track on some of the terror group’s most audacious plots and a road map for future operations,” it said.
“Future plots include the idea of seizing cruise ships and carrying out attacks in Europe similar to the gun attacks by Pakistani militants that paralyzed the Indian city of Mumbai in November 2008,” the cable network reported, adding terrorist training manuals in PDF format in German, English and Arabic were among the documents as well.
US intelligence sources have been quoted as saying that the documents uncovered are “pure gold”. This is reckoned to be the most important haul of Al Qaeda materials, besides those found from bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad last year.
