Osama bin Laden was plotting to assassinate then-President Barack Obama when the terrorist leader was killed — but had no plans for Joe Biden because he deemed him “totally unprepared” to lead the US, according to a new book.
“As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approached, bin Laden was eager to memorialize the occasion with another spectacular strike,” national security analyst Peter Bergen wrote in “The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden,” according to an excerpt in the Wall Street Journal.
“He told his lieutenants that he wanted ‘effective operations whose impact, God willing, is bigger than that of 9/11,'” wrote Bergen, based largely on a treasure-trove of documents found in the terrorist’s hideout.
“He explained that killing President Barack Obama was a high priority, but he also had General David Petraeus, at that time the US commander in Afghanistan, in his sights,” Bergen wrote.
“Bin Laden told his team not to bother with plots against Vice President Joe Biden, whom he considered ‘totally unprepared’ for the post of president,” the book claimed.
Bergen did not elaborate on why the jihadist felt that way about Biden, who would, of course, go on to become president less than a decade after bin Laden’s death at the hands of Navy SEALS. Biden was reportedly against the raid that killed the terror chief.
The al Qaeda coward’s desire for “another spectacular strike” was largely because he felt “agitated” that he was being forgotten, according to the book published Tuesday.
“History seemed to be passing him by,” Bergen wrote, with his other plots having “fizzled” and attention focused on the Arab Spring rather than his ongoing calls for jihad.
Bin Laden was also “acutely conscious” that allied terror groups “had killed many thousands of Muslim civilians,” which “undercut the notion that al Qaeda was fighting a holy war on behalf of all Muslims.”
He even considered a name change as he sought “a kinder, gentler al Qaeda,” Bergen wrote.
That change — along with the planned attack on the US — never came to fruition as bin Laden was killed in the US raid on his secret hideaway in Pakistan on May 2, 2011.
“As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approached, his overriding goal was to carry out another spectacular terrorist attack against the US,” Bergen wrote.
“He died knowing that he had failed.”