http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/16/documents-reveal-bin-
laden-directive-to-kill-obama-petraeus/?intcmp=obnetwork
U.S. officials are reviewing documents that suggest Usama bin
Laden before his death urged his Al Qaeda network to attack the
aircraft of President Obama and Gen. David Petraeus, Fox News
has confirmed.
The directive was first disclosed in a report last summer, after
a CIA-led Navy SEALs team took down bin Laden at his Pakistan
compound. The Washington Post, though, reported new details of
that alleged plan Friday after viewing the documents.
According to the report, bin Laden wanted Obama killed so that
an "unprepared" Vice President Biden would take over.
The directive was cited as a sign that bin Laden remained
determined to strike America long after the Sept. 11, 2011,
attacks -- but officials also downplayed the actual threat posed
by the order.
A senior U.S. official told Fox News that bin Laden "clearly had
bold ambitions to kill as many innocent people as possible" but
Al Qaeda's capabilities did not match the leader's intent.
"Leading up to and since (bin Laden's) death we know that (Al
Qaeda's) capacity to pull off those types of complex attacks has
been greatly diminished, and that Bin Laden himself spent much
of his time brooding and providing guidance that often fell on
deaf ears," the official said.
The official said that government analysts have spent "countless
hours" reviewing documents taken from the compound last May, and
that the government is working to declassify "as much of that
information as possible." The documents still are not expected
to be made public for months.
A Washington Post columnist reported, after viewing the
documents, that they showed bin Laden instructed his deputies to
organize special cells in Afghanistan and Pakistan to target
Obama and Petraeus.
"The reason for concentrating on them," bin Laden explained to
his top lieutenant, according to the article, "is that Obama is
the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make
(Vice President Joe) Biden take over the presidency."
"Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the
U.S. into a crisis," bin Laden continued. "As for Petraeus, he
is the man of the hour ... and killing him would alter the war's
path" in Afghanistan.
A former intelligence official told Fox News that the order was
taken seriously but was determined to be merely aspirational in
nature.