Guardian website removes Osama Bin Laden’s anti-Semitic ‘Letter to America’

The Guardian has deleted Osama bin Laden’s anti-Semitic “Letter to America” from its website after it went viral and received praise from teenage TikTok users.

A spokesman for the newspaper said it had deleted the terrorist diatribe after it was “widely shared on social media without full context” by pro-Palestinian activists.

Bin Laden’s letter, published in 2002, explains the rationale behind the 9/11 attacks and argues that the oppression of the Palestinian territories must be “revenged” in an assault against “Americans and Jews”.

The terrorist leader said it brought him “both laughter and tears” when Americans expressed “fabricated lies that the Jews have a historical right to Palestine”.

The letter also contains claims that Jewish people “control [American] policies, media and economy”, that Aids is a “Satanic American Invention” and that “the creation and continuation of Israel is one of the greatest crimes”.

Letter circulated by pro-Palestinian TikTok accounts

Twenty-one years later, amid debate over the US’s response to the conflict in Gaza, the letter has attracted the support of pro-Palestinian TikTok accounts.

“I need everyone to stop what they’re doing right now and go read – it’s literally two pages – go read ‘A Letter to America’. Come back here and let me know what you think. Because I feel like I’m going through an existential crisis right now, and a lot of people are. So I just need someone else to be feeling this too,” said Lynette Adkins.

Another user commented: “Just read it... my eyes have been opened.”

A third posted: “We’ve been lied to our entire lives. I remember watching people cheer when Osama was found and killed.

“I was a child, and it confused me. It still confuses me today. The world deserves better than what this country has done to them. Change must be made.”

After the Guardian’s 2002 transcript of the letter began to attract significant web traffic, the newspaper removed it.

“The transcript published on our website in 2002 has been widely shared on social media without the full context,” a spokesman told The Telegraph.

“Therefore we have decided to take it down and direct readers to the news article that originally contextualised it instead.”