Aden- Recently, al-Qaeda late leader Ossama bin Laden’s revealed documents let slip of his affiliation with the ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The CIA disclosed documents exposing bin Laden’s attentiveness to the situation in Yemen after the break of demonstrations against Saleh which demanded his deposition, in February 2011.

After the Abbottabad mission which reportedly killed bin Laden in May 2011, the CIA put its hands on 113 documents. The second collection was made available to media outlets last Tuesday, and Asharq Al-Awsat acquired copies of them.

One of the documents showed bin Laden’s refusal on intervening in Yemen , setting out instead an initiative for a breather with Saleh’s administration, because the foundation of supporters he had were not yet prepared to take over control in Yemen.

Bin Laden mentioned, in one of his messages sent to an al-Qaeda appointed prince over the Arab peninsula called Abu Basir, that “the rivals were alert in both Yemen and Afghanistan; however, Yemen hits home for our enemies, for it is located at the Gulf’s heart, which contains the largest oil reserve in the world.”

Bin Laden suggested to mediate with those whom he named “senior wise-men and clan sheikhs”, to arrive at a fair truce that helps Yemen’s stability. However, bin Laden said “Saleh might not be able to agree to the truce, should the government refuse, it would appear to be the one insisting for escalations to take place and that it does not control its fate. Thus, the public’s sympathy with the “Jihadists “will persist and magnify, leaving the opponent responsible for the aftermath and not us. We will show people our concern for the unity of the Islamic nation and the safe being of Muslims in well-founded principals.”

Bin Laden also pointed out that Saleh’s administration would be better than any other authority that will replace it. He stated that “we do not foresee much escalation because we are still in a preparatory phase. It doesn’t play to our best interest to hastily overthrow the regime in Yemen, despite its malfunction and misconduct; it remains to be a better option that the management the U.S. wishes to replace it with.

“Saleh remains incompetent of suppressing Islamic activism, and he being a non-Muslim supporter of the West has served as a shield for Islamic activism over the past few years. Each of the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists, and Jihadi Salafists benefited from him.”