According to a document retrieved from the compound where Osama bin Laden was shot dead by US Navy Seals last May, the al Qaeda leader also told his deputy Atiyah Abd al-Rahman to focus attacks with the US rather than Muslim nations. Bin Laden told Rahman that without Obama, the US would be thrown into “crisis” because Vice President Joe Biden was “unprepared” for the job, the Washington Post reported. He also showed regard for Petraeus. “The reason for concentrating on them,” bin Laden wrote in the 48-page document, “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 US 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 instructed Rahman to use Pakistani militant Ilyas Kashmiri for the attack. Kashmri was reportedly killed in a US drone strike in South Waziristan on June 2, 2011. “Please ask brother Ilyas to send me the steps he has taken into that work,” he wrote. Bin Laden stated that “every effort” should be spent on planning and executing attacks within America. He instructed Rahman to “ask the brothers in all regions if they have a brother … who can operate in the US [He should be able to] live there, or it should be easy for him to travel there.” US officials stated the plot was not seen as a serious threat.