How to claim victory and retreat:The West was winning the public relations fight. All his old comrades were dead, and he barely knew their replacements.
Faced with these challenges, bin Laden, who hated the United States and decried capitalism, considered a most American of business strategies. Like Blackwater, ValuJet and Philip Morris, perhaps what al-Qaeda really needed was a fresh start under a new name.
The problem with the name al-Qaeda, bin Laden wrote in a letter recovered from his compound in Pakistan, was that it lacked a religious element, something to convince Muslims worldwide that they are in a holy war with America.
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.
As bin Laden saw it, the problem was that the group's full name, al-Qaeda al-Jihad, for The Base of Holy War, had become short-handed as simply al-Qaeda.
Lopping off the word "jihad," bin Laden wrote, allowed the West to "claim deceptively that they are not at war with Islam." Maybe it was time for al-Qaeda to bring back its original name.
The letter, which was undated, was discovered among bin Laden's recent writings. Navy SEALs stormed his compound and killed him before any name change could be made. The letter was described by senior administration, national security and other U.S. officials only on condition of anonymity because the materials are sensitive.
Follow the lead of Ossam Bin Laden
Panetta says U.S. is 'within reach' of defeating Al Qaeda
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says intelligence uncovered in the bin Laden raid showed that U.S. operations have left the terrorist network with only 10 to 20 remaining key operatives.What he is really saying is we will declare victory by defeating the remains of a terrorist organization that has changed it's name.
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