After reviewing computer files and documents seized at the compound where bin Laden was killed, the newspaper cited American intelligence analysts as saying that they have found a handwritten notebook from February 2010 that discusses tampering with tracks to derail a train on a bridge, possibly on Christmas, New Year’s Day, the day of the State of the Union address or the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The documents taken at the Abbottabad compound, according to American officials, show that Bin Laden was in touch regularly with the militants networks he created.
But they said there was no evidence of a specific plot, The Times said.
An Obama administration official said that documents about attacking railroads were among the first to be translated from Arabic and analyzed. The materials, along with others reviewed in the intelligence cache, have given intelligence officials a much richer picture of the Qaeda founder’s leadership of the network as he tried to elude a global dragnet.
“He wasn’t just a figurehead. He continued to plot and plan, to come up with ideas about targets and to communicate those ideas to other senior Qaeda leaders,” said one American official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, who had been briefed on the documents.
Since Sunday night, counterterrorism officials have been alert to the possibility of new attacks from Al Qaeda to avenge its leader’s death, the dispatch said. Department of Homeland Security officials have reviewed potential terrorist targets and deployed extra security at airports. And in response to the new evidence seized at the Bin Laden compound, the Transportation Security Administration issued a bulletin to rail companies.
But officials emphasized that the information was both dated and vague. “It looks very, very aspirational, and we have no evidence that it developed beyond the initial discussion,” said Matt Chandler, a Homeland Security spokesman.
