It is not just the lapses in the public statements of TTP that worried Bin Ladin. The group’s indiscriminate attacks against Muslims are also a subject of concern that he raised with `Atiyya. In particular, he drew his attention to an operation the TTP carried out against one of the tribes on the basis that the tribe was against the Taliban. “Even if this were to be proven, it does not justify the operation in view of the non-combatants who died, for that would contradict the [Islamic] legal basis of our politics,” Bin Ladin wrote. “I therefore urge you to continue advising TTP [to reform their ways].”165 This TTP attack was not an isolated incident; their indiscriminate attacks, including targeting Muslims in mosques, is the subject of a long list of serious concerns that Adam Gadahn enumerated in his letter.166 It was left to `Atiyya and Abu Yahya al-Libi to write a letter addressed to the “respected brother” Hakimullah Mahsud, the leader of the TTP. Its content hardly reflected any respect for Mahsud. The authors did not mince words, explicitly stating their dissatisfaction with the TTP’s “ideology, methods and behavior.” These, they stated, are marred with “clear legal errors and dangerous lapses,” and unless the group changes its ways, its errors would be a “cause of great corruption of the jihadi movement in Pakistan.” News had reached `Atiyya and al-Libi that Mahsud had declared himself to be “the singular leader to whom everyone must pledge allegiance and declaring anyone who rebels against him (kharij `alyhi) or is not in his Tehrik to be a rebel (baghi).”167 In classical Islamic political parlance, dissenters (khawarij) and rebels (bughat) who renounce the authority of the legitimate imam are subject to jihad and liable to be killed. Thus, Mahsud’s announcement amounted to declaring himself to be the great imam with political authority over all Muslims, so `Atiyya and al-Libi found it necessary to point out to him that there is a difference “between the [minor] position of leader of jihad and that of great imam,” a distinction with which Mahsud should familiarize himself.168 It also seems that Mahsud or members of his group had referred to al-Qa`ida as “guests.” In response, `Atiyya and al-Libi explained to Mahsud that “we in al-Qa`ida (Tanzim Qa`idat al-Jihad) are an international Islamic-jihadi organization, we are not bound by country or race. In Afghanistan, we pledged allegiance to the Commander of the Faithful Mullah Muhammad `Umar, [we recognize him to be] a mujahid and the
SOCOM-2012-0000010, 9. SOCOM-2012-0000004, 11-13. 167 See Khadduri, Islamic Law of Nations, 230, footnote 1. 168 SOCOM-2012-0000007, p. 1. 165 166
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