UNITED STATES: Osama bin Laden was obsessed with singer Whitney Houston and wanted to marry her, a new book claims.
Kola Boof, a Sudanese poet and novelist who says that she was kept against her will as the al-Qaeda leader's mistress in 1996, writes in her autobiography that he wanted to give the star a mansion and make her one of his wives.
"He told me that Whitney Houston was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen," Boof claims in Diary of a Lost Girl, excerpts of which are published in Harper's magazine (September issue).
But bin Laden had less respect for Houston's husband, Bobby Brown, apparently talking about the possibility of having him killed.
"He said that he had a paramount desire for Whitney Houston and, although he claimed music was evil, he spoke of some day spending vast amounts of money to go to America to try to arrange a meeting with the superstar," Boof writes.
"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."
Bin Laden would speak constantly about "how beautiful she is, what a nice smile she has, how truly Islamic she is, but [she] 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, who also says bin Laden would "ramble on" about his favourite TV shows, The Wonder Years, Miami Vice and MacGyver, adds: "In his briefcase, I would come across photographs of the star, as well as copies of Playboy . . . It would soon come to the point where I was sick of hearing Whitney Houston's name."
- (PA)