Osama's 'Letter to America'

Harley Sorensen asks in an opinion piece for the SF Chronicle, do “you think that anyone in America is curious as to why Muslim fundamentalists hate us so much? If we were given the answer, straight from the horse's mouth, would anyone pay attention? If Osama bin Laden wrote, 'This is why we hate you,' and then laid it all out, chapter and verse, do you think we'd be curious enough to read what he had to say?”

He continues,

The answers to these questions seem to be no, no and no.

Lives are at stake in our "war on terrorism," perhaps thousands of lives, maybe hundreds of thousands -- and not just overseas. Untold numbers of Americans might die -- right here, in the United States of America -- before our "war" is resolved, and yet we seem not one whit interested in the motivations of our enemies.

That's the conclusion one must reach if one looks at our studious avoidance of the "letter to America" purportedly written by Osama bin Laden.

Have you seen that letter? Have you read about it in your newspapers? Have you heard it mentioned on television or on the radio?

Not likely. As near as I can tell, after searches on both Nexis and Google, bin Laden's "letter to America" has been thoroughly ignored by the American press.

I have doubts about the authenticity of the letter, but it's remarkable that hardly anyone in the US press has picked up on it.