One of the pieces of correspondence released on Thursday by the U.S. Government from Osama bin Laden included direct orders to Al Qaeda subordinates to shoot down Air Force One if President Obama came to visit Pakistan or Afghanistan. But it also included an interesting "Don't Kill" list.
Bin Laden targeted both President Obama and then-Afghan War commander Army Gen. David Petraeus, but said Al Qaeda should not shoot down any aircraft carrying Vice President Joe Biden - and other top officials, including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Michael Mullen and the special State Department envoy in the region Richard Holbrooke.
Here is bin Laden's order:
"I asked Shaykh Sa'id, Allah have mercy on his soul, to task brother Ilyas to prepare two groups - one in Pakistan and the other in the Bagram area of Afghanistan - with the mission of anticipating and spotting the visits of Obama or Petraeus to Afghanistan or Pakistan to target the aircraft of either one of them.
"They are not to target visits by US Vice President Biden, Secretary of Defense Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff (Chairman) Mullen, or the Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Holbrook. The groups will remain on the lookout for Obama or Petraeus. 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. Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the US into a crisis.
"As for Petraeus, he is the man of the hour in this last year of the war, and killing him would alter the war's path."
Note the mention above of the "Bagram area of Afghanistan" - that's where President Obama was just the other day, as he spoke to troops based there and then addressed the American people from a hangar on that base.
