Osama bin Laden’s plot to kill Obama

President Obama arguably ended an era when he acted on information concerning Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts, struck first, and killed the most wanted man in the world. It increased his international credibility, and frankly I don’t think that anyone, supportive of the president or not, would say he made a bad call. Now, reports are saying that bin Laden was actually planning his own strike against the president: an assassination. Both of President Obama and General David Petraeus.

The documents in question will be available to the public soon, but until then, several details have been made known. Among them, bin Laden reportedly wanted his network to focus on attacks in America primarily, ignoring potential operations inside Muslim countries. He made specific instructions as to attacks on aircraft carrying Obama and Petraeus. In bin Laden’s words, “killing [Obama] automatically will make [Vice President Joe] Biden take over the presidency. … Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the US into a crisis.”

bin Laden saw Petraeus’s death as significant as well, saying that it “would alter the war’s path” in Afghanistan.

Administration officials have been quick to to say that the plot against the president was never considered an actual threat, as al-Qaeda didn’t appear to have the ability to shoot down aircraft at the time of the raid of bin Laden’s compound. In addition, the Pakistani terrorist bin Laden had intended to use for the attacks, Ilyas Kashmiri, was killed in a drone attack a month before bin Laden’s death.

Either way, it’s a good thing we struck first!

Do you think that the president was ever truly in danger from bin Laden’s planned attacks?