A Letter to Osama Bin Laden’S Deputy

(c. FALL 2010) [Trans.: David Cook] Available at: https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ubl2016/arabic/Arabic%20Praise%20be%20to%20God%20the%20Lord%20of%20all%20worlds.pdf This undated letter is probably from late 2010 or early 2011, prior to Osama b. Laden’s death on 2 May 2011 at the hands of U.S. forces in Pakistan. Most of the letter’s contents are requests for Islamic advice, and are not translated here. There has been some commentary on the significance of the letter; its pleading tone and absence of self-confidence indicates a leader (Shekau) who has not yet decided what to do with Boko Haram. Notwithstanding, this letter evinced the early transmutation of Boko Haram from a local group into a transnational actor and its gradual co-optation into the al-Qaeda jihadi universe via the middlemen from the Sahelian-Sahara region...