Osama Bin Laden, dead 9/11 mastermind, wanted to change Al Qaeda's name to repair image

Osama Bin Laden wasn't just the leader of Al Qaeda - he was its head of marketing, too.

The 9/11 mastermind wanted to change the name of Al Qaeda because the moniker was giving the terrorist organization a bad rap, according to a letter recovered during the U.S. raid that killed him.

Bin Laden said the negative connotation was largely the result of his group killing too many Muslims. The public relations problem could be solved if the new name could convince Muslims worldwide that they were in a holy war with America, he wrote.

The undated letter revealed the terror chief considered named like Taifat al-Tawhed Wal-Jihad, which means Monotheism and Jihad Group. He also liked Jama'at I'Adat al-Khilafat al-Rashida, meaning Restoration of the Caliphate Group.

His group's full name, Al Qaeda al-Jihad, which means for "The Base of Holy War," had been shortened to just Al Qaeda. Cutting off the word "jihad," Bin Laden wrote, allowed the West to "claim deceptively that they are not at war with Islam."

The name was not changed before the May 2 raid by Navy SEALs that led to Bin Laden's death. His longtime No. 2 and successor, Ayman al-Zawahri, 59, will take over as the head of Al Qaeda, according to a website affiliated with the terror network.

President Barack Obama referred to the trove of information taken from the 54-year-old's hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on Wednesday in his speech about withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
"The information that we recovered from bin Laden's compound shows Al Qaeda under enormous strain," he said.

"Bin Laden expressed concern that Al Qaeda had been unable to effectively replace senior terrorists that had been killed and that Al Qaeda has failed in its effort to portray America as a nation at war with Islam, thereby draining more widespread support."

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