Bin Laden rejected plan to mow down people

WASHINGTON, May 1 (UPI) -- Months before he died in a raid by U.S. Navy SEALs, Osama bin Laden rejected a plan to mow down people like weeds, documents found after his death reveal.

The documents recovered from his Pakistani complex indicate bin Laden opposed an idea to attach rotating blades to the front of a pickup truck and drive the contraption into crowds, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

"He was upset about it," a former intelligence official who viewed the documents said, "He felt it conflicted with his vision for what he wanted al-Qaida to be."

New details of bin Laden's final months have been provided by current and former U.S. officials as well as new books that quote extensively from documents recovered during the May 2 raid.

Among those documents were thousands of electronic memos that captured conversations between the al-Qaida leader and his deputies around the world.

The documents reveal bin Laden as a hands-on manager who participated in the terrorist group's planning as well as giving orders and advice to field operatives.

"He was not a recluse; he was CEO of a global terrorist organization," said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA counter-terrorism officials and White House adviser on terrorist groups.