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In a letter dated May 2010 shows how Osama bin Laden, a former Al Qaeda leader, questioned Joe Biden’s ability to lead the United States in the midst of a plot to assassinate then-President Barack Obama.
The terrorist, killed in an American raid in 2011, addressed Al Qaeda militants to tell them not to plan to attack then Vice President Biden because he was “totally incapable” of leading the United States and, therefore, such a situation would suit them in the face of an eventual assassination of Obama.
In the letter, Bin Laden wrote that “Biden will lead U.S. into a crisis”
The late terrorist ordered members of the group to be on the lookout for the movements and planes of former President Barack Obama and then CIA Director David Petraeus to attack them.
“They are not to target visits by US Vice President Biden. The groups will remain on the lookout for Obama or Petraeus,” bin Laden wrote.
“The reason for concentrating on them is that Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make Biden take over the presidency for the remainder of the term, as it is the norm over there,” another excerpt from the letter reads. “Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the U.S. into a crisis.”
“As for Petraeus, he is the man of the house in this last year of the war, and killing him would alter the war’s path,” bin Laden said.
“The letter was uncovered in a treasure-trove of documents found in the terrorist’s Pakistan hideout after he was killed by US forces in a raid on May 2, 2011,” the New York Post reported. “The documents, penned between 2006 and 2011, are publicly available through West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center.”
An article dating back to 2012, published in the Washington Post, also makes mention of bin Laden’s letter and “his plan to kill Obama.”
“Before his death, Osama bin Laden boldly commanded his network to organize special cells in Afghanistan and Pakistan to attack the aircraft of President Obama and Gen. David H. Petraeus. Administration officials said Friday that the Obama-Petraeus plot was never a serious threat,” reads the Post article, which is authored by veteran journalist David Ignatius.
“The plot to target Obama was probably bluster, since al-Qaeda apparently lacked the weapons to shoot down U.S. aircraft. But it’s a chilling reminder that even when he was embattled and in hiding, bin Laden still dreamed of pulling off another spectacular terror attack against the United States.”
Reactions to Osama Bin Laden’s prediction
The curious letter reappears at a time when criticism surrounds President Joe Biden over the flawed withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Biden’s decision provoked the worst foreign policy crisis in recent U.S. history, triggering a series of catastrophic events for the country’s reputation, including the abandonment of Afghan allies and, above all, American citizens in Afghanistan.
Moreover, the sad image of the United States fleeing Afghanistan as the Taliban seized the capital Kabul and surrounded the city’s international airport will go down in history as one of the nation’s greatest military-tactical failures.
In this context, Bin Laden’s letter was taken as a sort of “premonition” for some users on Twitter.
Some users also ironized with the missive, recalling former President Obama’s undignified words about Biden and the similarity with Osama’s words: “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up.”
Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón is a journalist at El American specializing in the areas of American politics and media analysis // Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón es periodista de El American especializado en las áreas de política americana y análisis de medios de comunicación.
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