From the Desk of Osama bin Laden Our colleagues Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) and Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) write on some juicy reading out today from the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy at West Point: a report on a cache of 17 previously classified letters and other documents recovered from Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. West Point's report, using a slightly different spelling for Al Qaeda's former leader, is called "Letters From Abbottabad: Bin Ladin Sidelined?" and you can read the whole thing here. It explains that these private papers are dated from September 2006 to April 2011, just before the raid by the American Special Operations commandos that ended with Bin Laden's death. As the title suggests, the report concludes that Bin Laden "was not, as many thought, the puppet master pulling the strings that set in motion jihadi groups around the world." Rather, the documents sketch an exasperated figurehead trying to control a widening circle of splinter groups and insubordinate militants. Far from being pleased with the actions of regional jihadi groups claiming affiliation with or acting in the name of al-Qa'ida, Bin Ladin was burdened by what he saw as their incompetence. Mr. Baker writes that Bin Laden's list of immediate concerns for Al Qaeda included: how closely to affiliate with other extremist organizations, how much it should target the United States, how to win the support of Muslims, whether to attack drug runners to steal their money and even whether the infamous network should change its name. Head over to The Lede for Mr. Mackey's look at Bin Laden's 10 ideas for a new and improved name that would make it "difficult for Obama to say" that America's battle against the group was not a war on Islam or Muslims. Indeed, the report spends some time on Bin Laden's apparent preoccupation with branding, both personal and otherwise. The phrase "it would be nice" appears often in the letters, even in contexts where Bin Laden's fuse was clearly getting short. In a letter regarding operatives in Yemen, he urges that "it would be nice to remind our brothers in the regions to be patient and deliberate" and not anger local authorities. He was even concerned with H.R. protocol: in the first letter, he asks for "the résumé" of someone who has been recommended to him as a good prospect. Mr. Baker adds that the documents show that Bin Laden was not among the first to know about certain high-profile acts of terrorism supposedly in the name of Al Qaeda, including the attempted bombing of Times Square in May 2010: he passed along remonstrations to the Pakistani Taliban, which sponsored it. Read the full story here.