How Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ reached millions online

Videos citing the document had been viewed far less than many TikTok posts. Then a journalist made a compilation and posted it to X, causing attention to the manifesto to explode.

Osama bin Laden in 1998. (Mazhar Ali Khan/AP) (Mazhar Ali Khan/AP)
Osama bin Laden in 1998. (Mazhar Ali Khan/AP) (Mazhar Ali Khan/AP)

On Monday, a TikTok user with 371 followers, using the screen name “_monix2,” posted a video where she read parts of Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America,” in which the late terrorist leader said his killings of nearly 3,000 Americans in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had been justified by the United States’ support of Israel’s “occupation” of the Palestinian territories.

LINK: https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2023/11/16/guardian-osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america/