Running Al Qaeda

The Leadership Issue

How Osama bin Laden managed his far-flung terror operation and forced America to rethink warfare

We now have the first public release of goodies from Osama bin Laden's redoubt at Abbottabad: 17 letters to and from bin Laden and his crew that spell out vision, plans, and tactics for the global jihad. The letters span a decade and outline the dimensions of a would-be caliphate—a truly global theater of war conceived, plotted, and executed by bin Laden. They also reveal bin Laden to be a highly accomplished orchestrator of a global network struggling with the challenges of collaboration. Three issues consume him, and they happen to be the classic political tasks in the management of collaboration....

The entire article may be accessed here on page 26: http://mediacdn.reuters.com/media/us/editorial/reuters-magazine/reuters-aspen-2012.pdf