WASHINGTON — As the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks approached, Osama bin Laden hoped to shape the news coverage by suggesting his media team contact specific outlets and cooperate with them to get favorable coverage, according to a document released Tuesday.
The al-Qaeda leader instructed his media team to provide news outlets with "written, audio, and video information."
The information is among the 113 newly declassified documents made public by the office of the Director of National Intelligence. The documents were taken from bin Laden’s home in Pakistan after he was killed in a raid by Navy SEALs in May 2011, four months short of the anniversary he sought to promote. They include both digital and paper documents.
Bin Laden and his top lieutenants were obsessed with al-Qaeda’s image, insisting on disciplined messaging and the importance of establishing relationships with journalists, the documents show.
“Public image and perception was extremely important to al-Qaeda,” said Patrick Johnston, a counterterrorism analyst at RAND Corp.
Bin Laden expressed frustration with how al-Qaeda was often slow in getting its message out. “He saw a lot of missed opportunities,” Johnston said.
Some of the documents are unsigned and presumed to have been penned by bin Laden. Others appear to be signed by al-Qaeda leaders and may be directed to bin Laden.
One lieutenant sent an undated memo outlining a plan for spreading al-Qaeda’s message in Pakistan. The memo writer said several journalists in Pakistan had been identified and were willing to receive al-Qaeda statements.
The memo includes a suggestion that al-Qaeda’s media branch should start a “rivalry between (the journalists) to see who can get the latest news or footage from al-Qaeda.”
The memo also suggests identifying someone to give motivational speeches in Urdu, the national language of Pakistan.
In an effort to convince the public of al-Qaeda’s humanitarian side, bin Laden pushed to have al-Qaeda release a statement sympathizing with victims of the 2010 deadly floods in Pakistan, seeing that as a critical opportunity to show a different side of the terror group.
Al-Qaeda released a series of statements about the flood, criticizing the Pakistani government for not doing enough for victims of the tragedy. In one document, bin Laden appeared to express frustration that his statements weren’t getting out quickly enough.
The documents show an organization beset with many of the same frustrations that would be familiar to large corporations or governments grappling with a 24-hour news cycle. Al-Qaeda's challenges were even greater given the need to also hide from U.S. drones and listening devices tracking al-Qaeda’s leaders.
Al-Qaeda’s use of media was primitive compared with the Islamic State militant group, which has overshadowed al-Qaeda in recent years. Al-Qaeda released grainy videos and voice recordings. By contrast, the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, has mastered the use of Twitter and other social media and produces slick videos and digital magazines.
From the beginning, al-Qaeda recognized the importance of a media strategy.
“The media is a two-edge weapon,” says a document signed only with the name Asad
in September 2002. He went on to say no one in an “Islamic movement has succeeded in exploiting it.”
“The media controls us and we walk behind it,” Asad wrote.
