Whitney Houston, Jan. 17, 2009 (AP/Evan Agostini, File) /Osama Bin Laden in southern Afghanistan, Dec. 24, 1998. (AP/Rahimullah Yousafzai, File)
Saudi Arabian-born Osama bin Ladin, founder of the Pan-Islamic militant organization al-Qaida, was found by the U.S. to be the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. But while he promoted terrorist attacks against the U.S., it seems he was obsessed with African-American R&B diva Whitney Houston.
Bin Laden, who was killed on May 2, 2011, by U.S. special operations forces, not only loved Houston’s music but also wanted her to be one of his wives, at least according to Kola Boof.
Sudanese-American novelist Boof was, by some accounts, bin Laden’s mistress. Other accounts say she was kidnapped by bin Laden and made his mistress. Her memoir, “Diary of a Lost Girl: The Autobiography of Kola Boof,” details bin Laden’s obsession with Houston. The memoir was excerpted by Harper’s Bazaar in 2006.
Houston, who struggled with drug addiction, was a music and film star. Once married to fellow R&B star Bobby Brown, Houston sold more than 170 million album and single sales worldwide before she died in her Beverly Hills hotel room at the age of 48.
Boof said of bin Laden’s love for Houston, writing, “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.”
And he wanted Houston to be a wife, The Wrap reported.
“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 color rule and make her one of his wives,” Boof wrote.
And bin Laden seemed to have a plan to get rid of Houston’s husband, Brown.
“Whitney Houston’s name was the one that would be mentioned constantly. How beautiful she was, what a nice smile she has, how truly Islamic she is but is just brainwashed by American culture and by her husband Bobby Brown, whom Osama talked about having killed, as if it were normal to have women’s husbands killed,” Boof wrote.
According to Boof, he would even compare her to Houston–and, of course, she didn’t live up to the “Greatest Love of All” singer.
At one point Boof braided her hair, to bin Laden’s dislike–because Houston didn’t wear her hair in braids.
“Osama said only monkeys braid their hair. He told me that the singer Whitney Houston was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen and that she never wore her hair braided,” Poof recalled. “‘I want you to fix your hair like hers from now on,’ he said. ‘I can’t put my fingers through it when it’s braided.’”
Whitney Houston at the BET Honors, Jan. 17, 2009 (AP/Evan Agostini, File) /
Osama Bin Laden speaks to reporters in southern Afghanistan, Dec. 24, 1998. (AP/Rahimullah Yousafzai, File)
