IN THE COURSE of the campaign against international terrorism, the United States and its allies have uncovered hundreds of documents authored by both leaders and members of al Qaeda and allied terrorist networks. These documents, which currently reside in a classified database known as HARMONY, contain everything from loose papers to personal letters to bureaucratic documents to official statements and threats issued by al Qaeda and its allies. These documents, which contain important information with regard to the inner workings of al Qaeda, its leading personalities, field commanders, clandestine terrorists, and rank-and-file members, have been completely beyond the public access until now.

In late 2005, the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point was given 28 declassified documents from the HARMONY database in order to help the CTC “provide an analysis of potential network vulnerabilities and conflicts of interests within the organization” in order to support the efforts of U.S. military planners. The CTC’s detailed analysis on how best to exploit al Qaeda’s operational vulnerabilities is well worth reading on its own right, but what is far more interesting is the information contained in the declassified HARMONY documents that hints that there is far more to come.