Commit suicide to protect secrets, Bin Laden diktat to commanders

Files released by the CIA in the Abbottabad raid that killed Osama bin Laden have revealed that the al-Qaeda leader directed his commanders and closest aides to commit suicide rather than fall into the hands of security forces.

This, according to him, helps hide secrets pertaining to the organization and its financiers and supporters. In a letter, believed to be written by Bin Laden, the leader called on his commanders to kill themselves via the easiest methods to avoid captivity.

Bin Laden specifically directed one of his family members, Abu Abdallah al-Halabi to kill himself if his plan to transfer money from a mediator called Saad fails. In the letter, Bin Laden requests Halabi to detail how he will transport the money and to have a plan in case anything goes wrong.

“He must prepare himself and read Abdulaziz al-Jarboaa’s research on suicide to avoid revealing secrets. He must have an easy and simple way to kill himself if it is a must to do so in order to avoid captivity. We recommend all our brothers who have secrets pertaining to jihad to read Jarboaa’s research,” Bin Laden wrote in the letter.

Jarboaa, who published his research on a website called the forum of jihad and fatwa, concludes that suicide is permissible when there are fears that secrets - which if revealed may gravely harm Muslims – may be exposed during the operative’s torture or imprisonment leading to their death.

This report is also available in Arabic.