Bin Laden wanted to kill Obama so that a 'totally unprepared' Biden could become president
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had reportedly planned to assassinate former President Barack Obama in an attempt to plunge the United States into a crisis by putting his "totally unprepared" Vice President Joe Biden in charge of the country.
The infamous terrorist's plans were revealed in the declassified documents seized from bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, where he was killed on May 21, 2011. His plans included throwing the US "into a crisis" by killing Obama while he traveled in a plane with US military commander David Petraeus. The classified 45-page document is now available in full with hundreds of others seized from the 2011 raid.
Bin Laden, according to the documents, wrote to al-Qaeda deputy Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, saying: "The reason for concentrating on them is that Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make [Vice President] Biden take over the presidency, Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the US into a crisis. As for Petraeus, he is the man of the hour... and killing him would alter the war's path' in Afghanistan."
Bin Laden had reportedly planned to have his military operations chief in Pakistan, Ilyas Kasmiri, shoot down the plane Obama was flying in. The US intelligence told The Washington Post that although al-Qaeda had aspirations to assassinate Obama, they never developed into further planning.
"Please ask brother Ilyas to send me the steps he has taken into that work," bin Laden wrote detailing his plans in the document. His army chief was killed by a US drone strike shortly after bin Laden was killed by the US special forces
Biden, while relaying a description of the tense 2011 strategy session ahead of the raid which killed bin Laden, nearly eight years ago, had recalled that he told Obama: "Mr President, my suggestion is, don't go — we have to do two more things to see if he's there." The former vice president, however, has since changed his story as he narrated a different tale to a Fox News reporter earlier this year.
A reporter asked him: "As commander in chief, if you were ever handed a piece of intelligence that said you could stop an imminent attack on Americans — but you have to use an airstrike to take out a terrorist leader — would you pull the trigger?" Biden replied with: "Well we did — the guy's name was Osama bin Laden." The reporter then pointed out: "Didn't you tell President Obama not to go after bin Laden that day?" The former vice president replied with: "No, I didn't."
Obama, however, later confirmed Biden's position on the strike on bin Laden in 2011, while speaking to Republican Senator Mitt Romney, saying "even some in my own party, including my current vice president, had the same critique as you did," Fox News reported.
Bin Laden masterminded the September 11 attacks in the United States. The attacks on Twin Tower resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 and prompted the United States to wage a War on Terror.