Bin Laden apparently sought operative with valid Mexican passport

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WASHINGTON -- Osama bin Laden instructed his deputies to recruit an operative with a valid Mexican passport who could cross illegally into the United States, said a former U.S. official familiar with the trove of letters and notes seized last year from the terrorist leader’s compound.

U.S. intelligence analysts have combed through thousands of Bin Laden’s personal papers and computer files taken from the compound a year ago by Navy SEALs, and gleaned insights into Bin Laden’s strategic focus on attacking the U.S. as well as his concerns about the poor judgment of the rising generation of Al Qaeda leaders.

The notes also reflect how Bin Laden’s sometimes tortured religious logic bled into his battlefield orders.

In one letter written during the final year of Bin Laden’s life, the Saudi told his lieutenants that it would violate Islamic law for operatives who had pledged their loyalty to the U.S. to then turn around and launch attacks on U.S. soil, said the former official who spoke on condition of anonymity while discussing the intelligence.

In particular, Bin Laden was dismayed to find out that Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani American, had sworn allegiance to the U.S. during a citizenship ceremony just more than a year before he attempted to detonate an SUV loaded with explosives in New York’s Times Square in May 2010.

An operative with a valid Mexican passport would have easier access to the U.S. without violating an oath, Bin Laden wrote.

“Bin Laden wanted someone who had not pledged allegiance [to the U.S.]. He felt they were on stronger religious grounds,” said the former official.

The message was not the first time that U.S. intelligence officials had seen evidence that Al Qaeda wanted to smuggle operatives into the United States from it neighbors. A declassified CIA report written in 2003, titled “Al-Qaeda Remains Intent on Defeating U.S. Immigration Inspections,” said that specific information at the time demonstrated Al Qaeda’s “ongoing interest to enter the United States over land borders with Mexico and Canada.”

Some Arabic originals and English translations of the documents found in Bin Laden’s hideout have been declassified and will be published online Thursday by the Combating Terrorism Center, a think tank at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

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--Brian Bennett