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'Face of evil': Outrage as author Gretchen Felker-Martin calls Osama bin Laden's 9/11 attack 'principled'

Felker-Martin, however, removed the X post after she started receiving backlash and even apologized in two subsequent posts

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Transgender horror author Gretchen Felker-Martin has been subjected to intense criticism following her shocking post hailing Osama bin Laden over the 9/11 terror attacks.

Recently TikTokers discovered Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ where the al-Qaeda leader gave his reason for the deadliest terror attack on American soil that claimed 2,977 lives, and it soon started trending.

Felker-Martin seemingly joined the trend and praised Laden’s attacks as “the most principled and defensible thing.”

In a post made on Thursday, November 16, the author of ‘Manhunt’ wrote, “Can pretty safely state that bin Laden and I did not, uh, agree on much, but blowing up the World Trade Center is probably the most principled and defensible thing he did.”

Felker-Martin, however, removed the post after she started receiving backlash over the post.

She even apologized in two subsequent posts. Taking to her X account, the author wrote, “The other day in a moment of distress I talked out my ass to play devil's advocate in a tasteless, needless way. I sincerely regret it, and I apologize to anyone hurt or offended by my thoughtless words.”

In another instance, she wrote, “I'm deeply sorry for having hurt an upset you.”

'Next they'll be saying that he was just a misunderstood rich kid'

Needless to say, Gretchen Felker-Martin was shredded online by social media users who condemned her theory in strong words.

"The same people that said J6 was worse than 9/11 are now saying 9/11 was good," said one netizen.

Someone else slammed her by saying, "The face of evil. I wonder how her publisher feels about her approval of 9/11."

Another social media user hypothesized, "Next they'll be saying that he was just a misunderstood rich kid."

"Ummm this is highly concerning. She should be looked into because who knows what kind of other threats she has made or will make in the future," remarked another fan.

Someone else said, "Being oppositional for the sake of being oppositional. No identity, structure at home, ethics values manners, this is what happen."

"Sounds like this could be one of those "the FBI had her on their radar" type of situations," said another user.

Another user commented sarcastically, "Wait, I thought it was an “inside job” by the Bush administration. Now we’re back to bin Laden did it?"

"Ya know... There was one thing... One thing that we all could have agreed was bad and not "principled and defensible" This person still failed," chimed in someone else.

How did Laden's letter make its way to TikTok?

Per Daily Mail, Osama bin Laden's letter propagating his rationale behind 9/11 made its way back into the public consciousness after UK newspaper The Guardian linked a 2002 source to one of its article on the Hamas-Israel war where the letter was translated verbatim from Arabic. 

Soon the letter started gaining traction and many TikTokers posted their reactions after reading the letter. 

TikTok Policy wrote in a post to X, "Content promoting this letter clearly violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism."

They added, "We are proactively and aggressively removing this content and investigating how it got onto our platform."

"The number of videos on TikTok is small and reports of it trending on our platform are inaccurate," they continued before adding, "This is not unique to TikTok and has appeared across multiple platforms and the media."

Past controversies of Gretchen Felker-Martin

While Felker-Martin apologized for her post, Twitterati weren't quick to accept her apology. Several users brought forth her previous tweets which have already been deleted. 

Social media users soon found out that she has shown support to Laden before too. She also mocked the US Navy SEAL who claimed to have killed Laden.

Earlier, she reportedly threatened JK Rowling also for her views on trans people.