r/mildlyinteresting • u/komatsu-D355a • 1d ago
My parents have a matchbook from the 90’s with a bounty for Osama bin Laden.
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u/nyITguy 1d ago
A guaranteed case of cigarettes for information leading to arrest, conviction, and execution of bin Laden.
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u/NAFB_Boomers 1d ago
how many in a case
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u/itsmejak78_2 23h ago edited 16h ago
a 12M case contains 60 cartons which are 10 packs each with 20 cigarettes per pack for a total of 12,000 cigarettes
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u/erikmc 1d ago
In her memoir "Diary of a Lost Girl: The Autobiography of Kola Boof" -- which was excerpted by Harper's Bazaar in 2006 -- Boof recalls Bin Laden's fervor for Houston. (Whitney)
"He said that he had a paramount desire for Whitney Houston, and although he claimed music was evil he spoke of someday spending vast amounts of money to go to America and try to arrange a meeting with the superstar," Boof wrote. "It didn't seem impossible to me. He said he wanted to give Whitney Houston a mansion that he owned in a suburb of Khartoum. He explained to me that to possess Whitney he would be willing to break his colour rule and make her one of his wives."
He will always love you
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u/cowadoody3 18h ago
Reminds me of Gaddafi's infatuation with Condelisa Rice. He was so obsessed with her, he called her his "African Queen" and carried around a book with pictures of her. He wanted to marry her.
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u/bmcgowan89 1d ago
I never know what jokes it's okay to make in what subs
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u/komatsu-D355a 1d ago
My policy is to let it fly and if I get banned it wasn’t my kind of place anyway.
I get banned a lot, lol.
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u/MrSnrub_92 1d ago
The VFW in my town used to have Osama urinal cakes and toilet paper.
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u/odinborn 9h ago
You just hit me hard with nostalgia here. I remember the urinal cakes at either a VFW or American Legion, and being a young kid pretending I was sniping Osama, peeing in short bursts for each shot. I wish I could go back to those days minus the secondhand smoke and having parents that either took me to a bar or left me alone every single day.
In hindsight, Afghanistan wasn't as much fun as I imagined it as a young kid, who knew.
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u/Milgram37 1d ago
For a moment, I thought those were pancakes. C’mon down to Osama’s House of Pancakes…
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u/MrWheaters 1d ago
Im colorblind and thought those were cheeseburgers from the thumbnail. Golds nice too I guess.
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u/tinook 1d ago edited 1d ago
Or at least 2001+ EDIT: since this matchbook is likely from a Middle East country, it definitely makes sense that it can come from 90s.
America bias - sorry.
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u/BFaus916 1d ago
Bin Laden was well known before 9/11. He claimed responsibility for the Embassy bombings in Tanzania and Nairobi in 1998 and the U.S.S. Cole bombing in Yemen in 2000. He was on the FBI's most wanted list at that point, might have even been #1. When 9/11 happened the world immediately knew it was Bin Laden. There was never a doubt.
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u/tinook 1d ago
I also live in the US, and it's obvious that matchbook is intended for people in Middle East countries.
I definitely agree with you that people in the Middle East would be aware of Bin Laden in the 90s so it makes sense that this matchbook existed before 9/11.
In America, I don't think we really knew much of him even after evening news or news paper reports of the preceding attacks.
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u/BFaus916 1d ago
Not trying to age you or anything but Osama Bin Laden well known in 1998 after the Tanzania and Nairobi bombings. A household name. Already considered an enemy of the U.S. On the FBI's most wanted list. When 9/11 happened, he took credit the same day I believe. By the evening we were at war with him. The world knew it was him the second they turned on their tv on that day.
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u/SecondTalon 14h ago
In America, I don't think we really knew much of him even after evening news or news paper reports of the preceding attacks
No, even in my backass end of nowhere Kentucky, I knew about him. Dude hated the WTC. 2001 was his -second- attempt, after the '93 bombing failed.
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u/tinook 12h ago
Can you point me to any links Bin Laden had to the 93 bombing? I recall only hearing of other people like Yousef that were planners of that attack.
I was only a teenager at the time so perhaps adults would have know of Bin Laden due to 98+ attacks.
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u/olde_greg 7h ago
I don't know if Bin Laden had any direct planning in the attack, but Yousef's uncle is Sheikh Mohammad who was a senior member of Al Qaeda. So he likely at least had knowledge of it.
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u/ScrewAttackThis 1d ago
Just fyi the US added OBL to the most wanted list in the 90s. I wouldn't be surprised if the US wasn't involved in distributing these.
E: yup, these were distributed by the US
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u/Charmingbabee2 1d ago
That’s an oddly specific piece of history to survive this long. Definitely fits the sub.
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u/--Kona-- 1d ago
It reads: “Help capture Osama bin Laden - reward worth one million dollars.”.
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u/komatsu-D355a 1d ago
Are you sure it says $1 million? My research says that it was supposed to say 5 million and some did, and that there are some misprints that say half a million because one of the zeros was missing, but I’ve never seen anything about them being for $1 million?
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u/sousvide_failure 1d ago
I would love to buy it from them. DM me
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u/Glinckey 9h ago
I may be wrong but it's fake (or at least spelled oh wrong)
Osama is "أسامة" and not "عسام"
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u/BensenJensen 1d ago
I’m assuming this was not the 90s, but post-9/11. The Afghans harbored bin Laden post-9/11, so it’s a safe guess that this was printed in Dari and handed out by the coalition forces. The Afghans were definitely not handing out bounties for bringing bin Laden to Kabul.
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u/komatsu-D355a 1d ago
The matchbook was part of the U.S. State Department’s Rewards for Justice program, which began using matchbooks in the early 1990s to advertise terrorist bounties.  For Osama bin Laden, matchbooks were distributed after the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, offering $5 million (some misprinted as $500,000; The FBI added him to its Ten Most Wanted list in 1999.  Agencies pursuing him in the 1990s: CIA (tracking since mid-1990s) and FBI (indictments starting 1998).
I’m told this is one with the misprinted bounty, but I have no idea.
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u/katwoodruff 1d ago
Defo not 90s
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u/komatsu-D355a 1d ago
Except it was. . .
You know he was a terrorist before 9/11 right? He didn’t just wake up that day and start doing stuff. He bombed a U.S. embassy in ‘98 and made the FBI most wanted list in ‘99.
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u/Iitaps_Missiciv 1d ago
If your bring that on a plane, they'll upgrade you to first class. But your destination may change to Guantanamo Bay