Letter to America

For the movie, see Letter to America (film).

"Letter to America"[1] is a manifesto written in 2002 that is claimed to have been authored by Osama bin Laden. Originally published on a Saudi Arabian website previously used for dissemination by Al-Qaeda, the letter's English translation was spread onto websites by British Islamic extremists.[2] In November 2002, British newspaper The Observer published the translated letter.[2][3] It explains his motives for the September 11 attacks.[4] The veracity of the letter is in doubt, as the letter focuses on topics bin Laden had never previously discussed, such as AIDS and incest.[3]

## Renewed interest and removal[edit]

The letter received renewed attention in the midst of the 2023 Israel-Hamas War, after several viral videos on TikTok highlighted bin Laden's views on American support toward Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.[4][5] Subsequent praise of the letter prompted The Guardian to remove the letter from their website. They cited the lack of context surrounding the letter to be the reason for removal.[5] TikTok removed the hashtag "#lettertoamerica" and other variations from its search engine shortly after the videos had spread, with The Washington Post reporting that tagged videos received more than 15 million views prior to its removal.[6][7] Alex Haurek, a spokesperson for TikTok, stated that reports of the videos trending on the platform were inaccurate before going on to say that TikTok was “proactively and aggressively” removing videos from the platform for violating its rules on supporting acts of terrorism.[8][7] Yashar Ali, an American journalist, shared a compilation of these videos that has over 28 million views on X as of November 2023.[7]

The sudden propagation of the manifesto along with attempts to suppress the full text of the letter have sparked commentary regarding online youth radicalization, state-sponsored internet propaganda, and internet censorship. Renée DiResta, a writer and research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), criticized The Guardian on Threads for removing the full text from its website, saying,

> Don't turn the long-public ravings of a terrorist into forbidden knowledge, something people feel excited to go rediscover. Let people read the murderer’s demands - this is the man some TikTok fools chose to glorify. Add more context.[7]

## See also[edit]

* To the Youth in Europe and North America, an open letter from Ayatollah Ali Khameni

## References[edit]

1. ^ Full text: bin Laden's 'letter to America' https://web.archive.org/web/20231115081501/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver
2. ^ a b Burke, Jason (2002-11-24). "Osama issues new call to arms". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Archived from the original on 2004-06-10. Retrieved 2023-11-17.
3. ^ a b Greenberg, Karen J., ed. (2005), "November 2002 – Letter to the American People", Al Qaeda Now: Understanding Today's Terrorists, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 217–229, ISBN 978-0-521-85911-0, retrieved 2023-11-17
4. ^ a b Reporter, Giulia Carbonaro US News (2023-11-16). "Bin Laden's letter to US stuns young Americans: 'He was right'". Newsweek. Retrieved 2023-11-16.
5. ^ a b Koebler, Jason; Maiberg ·, Emanuel (2023-11-15). "The Guardian Deletes Osama Bin Laden's 'Letter to America' Because It Went Viral on TikTok". 404 Media. Retrieved 2023-11-16.
6. ^ Tolentino, Daysia (2023-11-17). "TikTok removes hashtag for Osama bin Laden's 'Letter to America' after viral videos circulate". NBC News. Retrieved 2023-11-17.
7. ^ a b c d Harwell, Drew; Bisset, Victoria (2023-11-17). "How Osama bin Laden's 'Letter to America' reached millions online". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-11-17.
8. ^ Levine, Alexandra S. (2023-11-16). "TikTok Videos Praising 9/11 Have Exploded, But The Company Denies They're Trending". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-11-17.

## External link[edit]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Letter to the American people

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Osama bin Laden

Background|

* Childhood, education, and personal life
* Militant activity
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* Search
* Khartoum compound
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* code name controversy
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Family|

* Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (father)
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* Abdallah bin Laden (son)
* Hamza bin Laden (son)
* Saad bin Laden (son)
* Omar bin Laden (son)

Work|

* al-Qaeda
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* Messages to the World
* Fatawā
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* 2004 video
* 19 January 2006 tape
* 6 September 2007 video
* 11 September 2007 video
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* Letter to America

In media|

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* Growing Up bin Laden
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Related|

* Soviet–Afghan War
* Allegations of a support system in Pakistan for Osama bin Laden
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* Gary Brooks Faulkner

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