Osama bin Laden Letter to America: Why Has it Resurfaced
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sysAdmin
- . November 17, 2023
- . Update: November 17, 2023 4:23 pm
Two decades-old letter by Osama bin Laden has resurfaced via videos on TikTok catching the United States off guard. Titled “Letter to America”, it was first published in 2002. The White House is not pleased that the notorious terrorist’s letter has gone viral on TikTok at a time when the US is supporting Israel in its war against the Hamas.
The social app is also struggling to get rid of this content. TikTok said content promoting this letter clearly violates the platform’s rules on supporting any form of terrorism. “We are proactively and aggressively removing this content and investigating how it got onto our platform.”
The hashtag #lettertoamerica has garnered more than 14 million views. TikTok has now blocked it. Many users expressed frustration and horror about the letter, while some have praised or sympathized with the content of the letter.
Osama bin Laden’s Letter
So what had Osama bin Laden written? “Letter to America” was initially published by The Guardian on November 24, 2002 but was removed on November 15, 2023 when videos of the letter became viral on TikTok.
The Guardian said “transcript published on our website had been widely shared on social media without the full context. Therefore, we decided to take it down and direct readers instead to the news article that originally contextualized it.”
In the letter, Osama bin Laden defended attacks in New York and Washington, as per The New York Times. He said Americans had become servants to Jews, who he believed controlled the US’s economy and media. Bin Laden wrote that American taxpayers were complicit in harming Muslims in the Middle East, including destroying Palestinian homes.
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White House Counters Osama’s Letter
The White House said there is no justification for spreading the repugnant, evil and anti-Semitic lies. Andrew Bates, a deputy White House press secretary, said no one should ever insult the 2,977 American families still mourning loved ones by associating themselves with the vile words of Osama bin Laden.
“Particularly now, at a time of rising anti-Semitic violence in the world, and just after Hamas terrorists carried out the worst slaughter of the Jewish people since the Holocaust in the name of the same conspiracy theories.”
