The publication of documents seized from Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan when he was killed by US forces a year ago has given an insight into the al-Qaeda leader and his organisation.
As RTÉ News Deputy Foreign Editor Anthony Murnane reports, the timing of their declassification comes as the US President begins his nationwide campaign for re-election in November.
It is a year since US special troops swooped on Osama Bin Laden's Abbottabad compound and killed the al-Qaeda leader.
It proved to be an intelligence treasure trove for the United States.
6,000 documents were seized and brought back to the US to be analysed.
Just 17 of them have now been published by the West Point Military Academy's Combatting Terrorism Center.
The 175-page cache of documents dates from September 2006 to April 2011.
They included Bin Laden's thoughts, and letters from his al-Qaeda lieutenants.
The papers portrayed Bin Laden as a frustrated leader who wanted President Obama assassinated but was unhappy with attacks on fellow Muslims.
Reference was also made to enlisting Irish support for al-Qaeda.
Idea of Bin Laden as 'puppet master' rejected
The Combatting Terrorism Center said the documents show that Bin Laden was not a 'puppet master' of jihadist groups around the world.
Instead he was burdened by what he saw as their incompetence. He was worried about al-Qaeda attacks causing "unnecessary" Muslim casualties and he advised his deputies to take more care to spare civilian lives.
Bin Laden had little concern for the US President, urging supporters to kill Barack Obama. He felt this would lead to Joe Biden becoming president - a position for which he says “he is totally unprepared.”
There was no explicit reference to any institutional support from Pakistan.
Seeking Irish support mooted
Winning Irish support was mentioned in one document.
An American al-Qaeda spokesman, Adam Gadahn, suggested that anger towards the Catholic Church over child abuse might turn people toward Islam.
He also pointed to the sympathy in this country towards the Palestinian issue and that Irish troops were not participating in what he termed 'Bush's Crusade wars'.
There is no doubt these documents provide an insight into al-Qaeda, but they only tell part of the story.
Thousands of other papers seized in Abbottabad remain unpublished. Their content remains untold.
The declassification of just 17 items came days after President Obama flew to Afghanistan to mark the first anniversary of the Abbottabad attack.
President Obama's Assistant for Homeland Security and counterterrorism John Brennan has said the death of Bin Laden was the administration’s most strategic blow yet against al-Qaeda.
In this election year it all serves to remind people that it was this President who gave the decisive order 12 months ago to send troops to Pakistan based on intelligence which tracked down Bin Laden.
And that is a difficult reality to live up to for a challenger like Mitt Romney when Americans go to the polls in November.
