Report: Bin Laden plotted to kill President Obama, Gen. Petraeus

Osama bin Laden was concocting a plan to assassinate President Obama and then-Gen. David Petraeus, according to reports in The Washington Post and the U.K. Daily Mail.

Bin Laden was discussing the plan with his lieutenants shortly before his death at the hands of U.S. special operations forces, according to information recently released by American intelligence officials and cited by the newspapers.

{mosads}Information on the assassination plot was uncovered within the trove of documents and personal letters gathered at bin Laden’s Abottabad compound in northern Pakistan. The plot, assigned by bin Laden to Pakistani terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri, focused on using specially trained al Qaeda cells to shoot down aircraft carrying Obama and Petraeus. The retired four-star general and current CIA chief was commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan at the time of the plot.

The goal was to have the presidency transfer over to Vice President Biden, who bin Laden believed was incapable of doing the job, according to the Post. “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. … 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 hour … and killing him would alter the war’s path” in Afghanistan, bin Laden allegedly told one of his top lieutenants.

The White House on Friday said the plot never posed any serious threat to either Obama or Petraeus. Further, the terror group likely lacked the right kind of weaponry to take down Air Force One or any other U.S. aircraft, according to the report. Other proposed terror plots uncovered in the Abottabad raid included a plan to target passenger trains in the U.S., as well as attacks on American targets during the July 4 holiday and the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

A team of Navy SEALs stationed in Afghanistan launched a dramatic cross-border raid into Abottabad last May based on intelligence that said the al Qaeda chief and members of his family were living there. Despite losing one of the two helicopters that flew the SEALs into the compound, the team located and killed bin Laden, ending the decade-long hunt for the infamous terrorist.