Bin Laden files show Qaeda leader's waning sway

(CBS News) The treasure trove of documents recovered by U.S. Navy SEALs during last year's raid on Osama bin Laden's Pakistani compound reveal that al Qaeda's leader felt his control of the terror network slipping away amid tensions with his second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, national security analyst Juan Zarate reported on "CBS This Morning" Wednesday.

Zarate received a detailed briefing on the contents of the documents, some of which will be released in the coming months. He talked about them with John Miller, who once interviewed bin Laden, Erica Hill and Charlie Rose.

"One of the interesting points that comes out of the documents is clearly the loss of control that bin Laden sees in the movement, the fact that the movement itself is getting out of his control, both in terms of discipline and in terms of what he's able to actually direct," said Zarate, "and you see that then reflected in tensions between him and Ayman al-Zawahiri, where they have different views as to what the movement should be doing, where they should be attacking."

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For example, Zawahiri, who became al Qaeda's leader after bin Laden's death, wanted to hit Americans in places like Afghanistan and Iraq while bin Laden wanted attacks on American soil.

"To me, the most striking part is a beleaguered movement, a battered movement, and a leader that realizes that he's having to exert control over a movement that he's losing control over quickly," Zarate said.

To be sure, bin Laden tried to exert his influence over every aspect of the terror network.

"When you pore through these documents, you're seeing administrative things, about whether we should have emirs and deputy emirs, and then he obsesses over the name al Qaeda," said Miller. "He says, You know the U.S. stuck this name on us -- it means the base -- but our real name used to be The Base of Jihad -- or holy war -- and, you know, we need to get back into that because they have recast us as being a terrorist group as opposed to fighting for Muslims.'"

Above, watch Juan Zarate and John Miller break down the bin Laden files