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With help from Lara Seligman and Eric Bazail-Eimil

NatSec Daily didn’t wake up this morning expecting to think about Gen Z, TikTok and OSAMA BIN LADEN, but the reemergence of the 9/11 orchestrator’s “Letter to America” on social media has made them all impossible to ignore.

There were nearly 300 videos on TikTok of people suggesting the al-Qaeda leader’s writing gave them a new perspective on U.S. foreign policy, namely America’s staunch support for Israel. Bin Laden cited that, and Palestinian suffering, among his reasons to justify killing nearly 3,000 people in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Shanksville, Pa.

The letter is many things, but it is an antisemitic screed. Its sudden fame comes as debate — online and IRL — over the Israel-Hamas war intensifies during Israel’s operation at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital.

EMERSON BROOKING, a senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, told us the “rediscovery” of the letter began around Nov. 12, as social media users were surprised to learn bin Laden wrote about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at all. More and more videos sharing reactions to his message were filmed, many of them showing a person’s silent, sympathetic reflection with overlaid music. Then the backlash to the trend began, inviting the inevitable backlash to the backlash.

Interest spiked again after The Guardian took the letter down from its site, inviting cries of media and government censorship. “This is feeding further conspiratorialism as people ask what ‘they’ don’t want you to know,” said Brooking.

The letter, which anyone can find on the Director of National Intelligence’s website, is feeding a sense that bin Laden was fighting for oppressed Palestinians against the Israel-supporting West. To make that point, TikTok users mime their cheers upon hearing the U.S. killed bin Laden before cutting to their newfound shame after learning of the supposed freedom fighter’s intention.

Sen. MARK WARNER (D-Va.) said it was “disturbing that more than 20 years after the worst terror attack in U.S. history, some misguided Americans are seeking to take inspiration from the words of its architect.”

So how did this, which no one had on their 2023 Bingo card, become A Thing?

Warner suggested that Beijing-based TikTok, which has an algorithm exposing users to content similar to what they’ve previously enjoyed, should take some of the blame. “We’ve seen that TikTok tends to feed these terrible impulses with an algorithm that amplifies fringe and extremist positions at the expense of more reasoned discourse,” the Senate Intelligence Committee chief told us.

A TikTok spokesperson said that boosting the letter promotes terrorism, violating the app’s terms of service. Moderators are “aggressively removing this content and investigating how it got onto our platform,” claiming that bin Laden-related videos aren’t going viral. “The number of videos is small.”

After the NatSec Daily was published, TikTok spokesperson MICHAEL HUGHES sent us numbers to challenge the claim that the bin Laden letter went viral on the app. From Nov. 14 to 15, before a tweet invited media coverage, #lettertoamerica had 274 video posts and 1.85 total video views, Hughes said. After the tweet by YASHAR ALI, the hashtag got 13 million views.

“By any objective standard, that’s not trending,” he said in a phone call, asserting the issue was prominent on X and Instagram, as well. Hughes sayid the #GymTok hashtag had 200 million views around the same time and #travel had nearly 140 million.

NatSec Daily could not independently confirm TikTok’s reported viewership numbers.

There are people who genuinely fear for Palestinians in Gaza as Israel retaliates against Hamas. But there are some on the pro-Palestinian side who simply don’t like Israel or its inhabitants, and their voices are reaching further and wider. “The volume of antisemitic content is higher than, say, pro-Israel sentiment on social media,” said AMY BECKER, an expert on online debates of foreign conflicts at Loyola University Maryland. “It’s an uncomfortable time to be on social media sometimes as an American Jew.”

There’s also a media literacy problem, Becker continued, noting it’s likely many content creators didn’t read the whole of bin Laden’s message or do research to understand its meaning. “There’s a lot of people just sharing it to be viral and to get attention on TikTok and not looking at the history behind this letter.”

COLIN CLARKE, director of research at The Soufan Group and a former college professor, said it makes him sad “that young Americans are learning history through memes, social media apps and algorithms. As educators, we’ve failed the younger generation on some fundamental level.” His students read the al Qaeda leader’s writings in his terrorism-focused classes, “but I never remember my students admiring bin Laden, as it seems many young people are doing now on TikTok.”

All of this plays into China’s hands, said Rep. MIKE GALLAGHER (R-Wisc.), chair of the House China Committee. “It’s further evidence that we have to ban TikTok or force a sale before the Chinese Communist party checkmates the free world by controlling the dominant media platform in America and spreading this dangerous, disgusting nonsense.”

This newsletter was updated with TikTok’s viewership statistics. The headline was also changed to reflect the broader social media virality of the videos.

INTERNET OUT IN GAZA: A lack of fuel caused the Gaza Strip’s internet and telephone services to collapse today, leading to a potentially long-term blackout as Israel’’s military presses further into the territory, our own MAGGIE MILLER and JOSEPH GEDEON report (for Pros!).

Gazan authorities have been able to quickly restore power after previous outages, but this one could last longer and exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians. The blackout cuts off Gaza’s connection to the rest of the world, making reporting and communication much more difficult, and Israel has barred entry of new humanitarian supplies to the walled territory.

“It’s unacceptable that in the middle of a war and humanitarian emergency millions of people in Gaza are cut off from all means of communication with their families, loved ones, and the outside world,” Sen. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-Md.) told Maggie and Joseph in a statement.

Israel’s Defense Forces continued to search Gaza’s Shifa hospital, which they said was a central operating hub for the Hamas militant group, The Associated Press’ WAFAA SHURAFA, JACK JEFFERY AND LEE KEATH report. Israeli soldiers displayed guns they said were found hidden there, but have yet to provide concrete evidence that the militant group’s command center is beneath the complex.

The “high intensity” phase of Israel’s ground invasion will “probably take weeks,” Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. MICHAEL HERZOG told POLITICO’s Power Play podcast (which featured Alex on the panel).

The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution today calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses” in Gaza, its first unified statement since the conflict began, The Washington Post’s KELSEY ABLES reports. It also urged humanitarian aid to be allowed into the territory uninterrupted, and for the release of all hostages.

The United States, United Kingdom and Russia abstained from the vote, while the other 12 members voted in favor. Washington and London criticized the resolution for not condemning Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, while Moscow said the Security Council should call for a ceasefire.

But as long as Hamas’ military is intact, the fighting likely won’t end.

“If anybody thinks that Israel will go to a ceasefire, while the majority of their military infrastructure remains intact, they are wrong,” Herzog said. “Because if we do so, we just invite the next war.”

He also expressed criticism of Germany’s suggestion that the U.N. take control in Gaza, proposing instead that Israel control the Palestinian territory for an “undefined period of time.”

“I’m not sure the U.N. model is the best model because we don’t have a good experience with U.N.-mandated forces,” Herzog said.

BIDEN AND XI DEAL: President JOE BIDEN and Chinese leader XI JINPING met yesterday for four hours, agreeing to reestablish military-to-military communications, curb the export of fentanyl precursor materials and keep talking about the impact of artificial intelligence.

“In the months ahead, we’re going to continue to preserve and pursue high-level diplomacy with the PRC — in both directions — to keep the lines of communication open, including between President Xi and me,” Biden said. “He and I agreed that either one of us can pick up the phone and call directly.”

On Thursday, MARA KARLIN, performing the duties of deputy under secretary of Defense for policy, says we will soon see resumption of high-level mil-to-mil comms with China after yesterday’s meeting, including “telephone conversations between the theater commanders.”

Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN also told reporters today during a trip in Asia that “I’m encouraged by the fact that we will have channels open, adding he would not “make any predictions about what this means for China’s behavior.”

But the Biden-Xi meeting will be remembered more for a comment the president said about his Chinese counterpart. Scroll down to Broadsides for that.

Meanwhile, Xi signaled Beijing may send the U.S. a new set of giant pandas, an indication that the era of so-called panda diplomacy between the nations may live another day, our own ERIC BAZAIL-EIMIL reports.

“Pandas have long been envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples. We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation, and do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians so as to deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples,” he said at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco.

Xi’s hints come a week after the National Zoo’s iconic three pandas returned to China following the end of the loan agreements between the Washington zoo and China. Those pandas had been in the U.S. since 2000, replacing the original two pandas that Chinese leader MAO ZEDONG gifted the U.S. in the 1970s.

IT’S THURSDAY: Thanks for tuning in to NatSec Daily. This space is reserved for the top U.S. and foreign officials, the lawmakers, the lobbyists, the experts and the people like you who care about how the natsec sausage gets made. Aim your tips and comments at [email protected] and [email protected], and follow us on X at @alexbward and @mattberg33.

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FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY — GOP SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE: Republican primary voters in two dozen districts, whose congressional members once voted against U.S. aid to Ukraine, are more open to supporting the embattled country with the right messaging, a new poll found.

The Ukraine Freedom Project, a nonprofit that supports the country’s pushback of Russia’s invasion, posed 14 agree/disagree statements about Washington’s support for Kyiv, eight of which included references to Israel aid (which the GOP base strongly supports). In nine of the questions, 60 percent or more of the respondents viewed Ukraine aid favorably.

One of those, which received 72 percent agreement, was: “The weakness President Biden showed in his withdrawal from Afghanistan emboldened VLADIMIR PUTIN to invade Ukraine. If America stops supporting Ukraine, then it will show weakness to Iran and make them more likely to attack Israel.”

As assistance to Ukraine hangs in the balance amid GOP pushback, the group found that effective messaging on the issue could “potentially increase support for continuing to fund the war in Ukraine.”

Read: NIKKI HALEY and rivals are spinning up the GOP anger machine on tech — again by our own REBECCA KERN

STOP DATA BROKERS: Sen. ROGER WICKER (R-Miss.) is urging Secretary of Defense LLOYD AUSTIN to “employ all available means” to prevent commercial data brokers from hoovering up the health, location and financial data of U.S. service members.

In a letter sent Wednesday and shared with our friends at Morning Cybersecurity (for Pros!), the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee pointed to a recent study from researchers at Duke University as evidence that private firms are collecting and selling reams of hypersensitive data on active-duty soldiers and their family members. Criminal groups and foreign states can then openly purchase that data online.

“This troubling finding makes clear that adversaries have many tools at their disposal to breach U.S. networks, even beyond typical offensive capabilities,” Wicker writes.

ICYMI — Blacklisted spyware firm looks for inroads amid war in Gaza by our own HAILEY FUCHS, JOHN SAKELLARIADIS and CAITLIN OPRYSKO

DOD CANCELS ‘HAVANA SYNDROME’ GRANT: The Pentagon canceled a contract to research the effects of pulsed radiation on ferrets in connection with “Havana Syndrome” a day after POLITICO revealed the experiments in a March 9 article, according to public records and a Defense Department spokesperson.

The mysterious illness was first reported seven years ago by a group of U.S. diplomats in Cuba who experienced severe headaches, temporary loss of hearing, vertigo and other symptoms similar to traumatic brain injury. Since then, hundreds more U.S. government personnel have reported these incidents, which many victims and experts still believe are the result of a directed-energy weapon.

The Army’s medical research and development arm closed out a $750,000 grant to Wayne State University in Michigan to study the effects of radio frequency waves on ferrets, which have brains similar to humans, on March 10, public records show, just a day after the POLITICO article was published.

But the Pentagon says that’s a coincidence. Spokesperson Cdr. TIM GORMAN told POLITICO the Army canceled the contract because neither WSU nor the Army command have the necessary level of security clearance — “not because it deemed the research to be improper in any way.”

Still, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a prominent animal rights group, is taking the win, thanking Austin and Army Secretary CHRISTINE WORMUTH for halting the experiments in a Monday letter obtained by POLITICO. PETA also urged DOD to reinstate a ban on all weapon-wounding tests on dogs, cats, monkeys and marine animals, and to prohibit such experiments on all other species.

But don’t expect DOD to halt all animal tests. While Gorman said the Pentagon “pursues every effort to engage in research that does not require animal use, there are still critical areas of study that require the use of animal models.”

HELP US HAKEEM: Progressive Democrats who’ve condemned Israel over its war offensive in Gaza are demanding that House Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES do more to protect them against primary challenges from pro-Israel Dems, our own NICHOLAS WU and BRITTANY GIBSON reports.

In a closed-door meeting at party headquarters last Thursday, the three lawmakers who lead the Progressive Caucus’ PAC met with Jeffries and Rep. SUZAN DELBENE (D-Wash.), the head of House Democrats’ campaign arm. They told the Democratic leader he needed to keep the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee out of Democratic primaries.

In fact, the progressive leaders argued, Democrats’ efforts to recapture the House next year might depend on it.

“If we have to spend a lot of money to keep our incumbents in office, then that’s less money that gets spent on frontline districts and districts we can pick up, so it is a real problem,” said Rep. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-Wash.), a co-chair of the PAC. “And that’s why it’s really important to be clear to AIPAC that they need to stand down and that we are going to vigorously defend our members.

SENATE TARGETS AZERBAIJAN AID: The Senate passed a bill last night that would block the White House from granting a long-time waiver for military assistance to Azerbaijan for the next years, Eric writes in.

The Armenian Protection Act of 2023, which was introduced by Sen. GARY PETERS (D-Mich.) in September, prevents the use of a previously invoked waiver to give Azerbaijan military assistance. It received bipartisan support from GOP and Democratic senators and passed by unanimous consent.

The Freedom Support Act of 1992 blocks Azerbaijan from receiving U.S. military assistance, in light of its ongoing tensions with neighboring Armenia over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. For over two decades, Azerbaijan has received a waiver under Section 907, opening the door to hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military assistance and partnerships. State Department officials have said the department is not planning on granting Azerbaijan a waiver this year in the wake of its incursion into Nagorno-Karabakh in September.

Read: Tough border negotiations endanger Ukraine aid by our own BURGESS EVERETT

BASHING BIDEN’S ‘DICTATOR’ COMMENT: China’s not happy that Biden called Xi a “dictator” (for the second time this year) after their meeting on Wednesday.

“Look, he is. He’s a dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who runs a country that is a communist country,” Biden told reporters after he announced agreements on a number of confidence-building measures with his Chinese counterpart, our own CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO, PHELIM KINE, GAVIN BADE and JONATHAN LEMIRE reported.

“This statement is extremely wrong and irresponsible political manipulation,” foreign ministry spokesperson MAO NING told reporters on Thursday per Reuters.

China’s foreign ministry said it “strongly opposes” Biden’s remarks, without mentioning him by name. “It should be pointed out that there will always be some people with ulterior motives who attempt to incite and damage U.S.-China relations, they are doomed to fail,” she said.

Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN even winced and looked down the moment Biden called Xi a dictator, indicating that may not have been what his boss was prepped to say.

— TODD HARRISON has joined the American Enterprise Institute as a senior fellow where he’ll focus on the defense budget, defense-industrial base and space policy. He joined the think tank from Metrea, where he was senior vice president and head of research.

— GARRETT GRAFF, POLITICO: We have a UFO problem. What we don’t have (yet) is a serious answer.

— SHIVSHANKAR MENON, Foreign Affairs: The virtues of restraint

— REBEKAH KOFFLER, Fox News: Putin 2024: Why he will almost certainly win another term, retaining presidency till 2030

— The Atlantic Council, 9 a.m.: Relying on old enemies: The challenge of Taiwan’s economic ties to China

— The Atlantic Council, 10 a.m.: Israel, Ukraine and the evolution of warfare

Thanks to our editor, Jessica Meyers, who we would trade to China for a panda.

We also thank our producer, Gregory Svirnovskiy, who is worth an infinite number of pandas.