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Monday, November 2, 2026Nov 2

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The frustrations of allied warfare _ al-Qaida-style

FILE - This undated file photo shows al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. U.S. intelligence officials have released more than 100 documents seized in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, including a loving letter to his wife and a job application for his terrorist network. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence says the papers were taken in the Navy SEALs raid that killed bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - This undated file photo shows al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. U.S. intelligence officials have released more than 100 documents seized in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, including a loving letter to his wife and a job application for his terrorist network. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence says the papers were taken in the Navy SEALs raid that killed bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011. (AP Photo, File) FILE - This undated file photo shows al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. U.S. intelligence officials have released more than 100 documents seized in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, including a loving letter to his wife and a job application for his terrorist network. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence says the papers were taken in the Navy SEALs raid that killed bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011. (AP Photo, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) – If President Barack Obama or his predecessor thought fighting a war with coalition partners is hard, they might consider Osama bin Laden’s frustrations.

Among documents gathered in the 2011 raid on bin Laden’s Pakistan compound is a lengthy complaint about the difficulties of working with Arabs, Uzbeks, Turks, “Russians of all kinds,” Germans and others in al-Qaida’s global jihad against America.

“Unfortunately, there is so much chaos on the ground,” he wrote. “In general we suffer from unjustified divisions and alliances, which I call the ‘fake commandants.'”

Broadly, the dozens of documents released Wednesday by the Obama administration portray bin Laden as a leader cut off from his underlings – disappointed by their failures, beset by their complaints and regretting years of separation from much of his family.