The British newspaper The Guardian has removed a link to a letter attributed to Osama bin Laden, published in 2002, which claimed responsibility for the attacks of September 11, 2001, in which he denounced American support for Israel and called for revenge on the Palestinian people, a text that is now widely used on social networks and taken out of context. in the midst of the Hamas-Israel war.
The document "was withdrawn" on Wednesday, the Guardian website now says in place of the text, which has gone viral in recent days on social media, often associated with favourable comments.
In this letter, a call for revenge on the Palestinian people
"This transcript posted on our website was widely shared on social media without the full context. We have therefore decided to remove it and instead redirect our readers to the article that originally contextualized it," the newspaper said.
In this "Letter to America", Osama bin Laden, killed in 2011 by an elite American unit in northern Pakistan, justified the September 11 attacks in the United States and threatened to attack Western interests again.
The letter, which also calls for revenge on the Palestinian people, has resurfaced on TikTok in the context of the conflict sparked on October 7 by the deadly attack by Hamas in Israel, which in retaliation has vowed to eradicate the Islamist group and is carrying out massive bombings in the Gaza Strip. The origin of the letter's resurgence has been linked by several media outlets to a video posted on TikTok on Tuesday by an influencer.