Arab 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

From The Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitor Project:

. . . some video clips showing how common 9/11 conspiracy theories are in the Arab media.

For example, excerpts from an Iranian TV documentary which aired on September 11, 2005 on Sahar 1 TV:

Narrator: The initial reports talked about 6,729 fatalities. Soon, the number dropped to 3,000, and ultimately, somehow, it reached 2,800. After the incident, the Jerusalem Post published an article with the names of 4,000 Jews who had worked in the two towers and were missing. Later it turned out that only 130 Jews had been in the two towers and were killed. The absence of a large number of Jews on the day of the attack is one piece of evidence for the possibility that the Mossad was involved in the attacks. Furthermore, the technical complexity of this operation, the way it was carried out, as well as the possibility of obtaining secret and classified information in the US and the Zionist entity's record of attacking its own people in order to benefit on various levels, as well as the secret, deep-rooted competition between the Zionist entity and the US...

The Washington Times published a 68 page report about this, one day before the attacks of 9/11, which is one of the reasons to suspect Zionist involvement.

(To view the clip, go to this page and scroll down.)

This was hardly an isolated event. The following is just a sampling from a much larger compilation:

Egyptian Researcher Zaynab Abd Al-‘Aziz, Iqra TV, May 26, 2005

Abd Al-Aziz: When in January 2001, the World Council of Churches delegated this mission to the US - what did the US do? It fabricated the show of… is it September 9 or 11?

Host: Eleven. Please explain this to me.

Abd Al-Aziz: Yes, of course…

Host: You mean to say that the World Council of Churches delegated the mission of Christianizing of the world to the US.

This is hilarious. The World Council of Churches is a liberal body what doesn't want the world Christianized. But continuing . . .

Abd Al-Aziz: Yes. And how could the US win legitimacy for this without anyone saying that they are perpetrating massacres and waging a Crusader war? It fabricated the 9/11 show. I call it a fabrication because much has been written on this. We are also to blame. Why do we accept a single perspective? Countless books were written, some of which were even translated into Arabic, like Thierry Meyssan's 9/11 – The Big Lie and Pentagate. "Pentagate" like Watergate… He brings documents to prove that the method used in destroying the three (sic) towers was "controlled demolition." This is an architectural engineering theory, which was invented by the Americans. They teach it in their Universities. They make movies and documentaries about it. They incorporated it in movie scenarios and then carried it out in real life. Why do we accept this?

Host: My God, Doctor. This is unbelievable! You're saying that this destruction…

Abd Al-Aziz: ...was a controlled demolition. The building collapsed in its place, without hitting a single building to its left or right. The three towers fell in place.

Host: In the same method they use in movies and plays?

Abd Al-Aziz: Yes, Exactly like that. That is how the US won international legitimacy. You could sense the (9/11) operation was pre-planned because many things were revealed in the days that followed. For example 4,000 Jews caught influenza on that exact day. They set a timer, and all 4,000…

Host: By God, you crack me up! "They all set a timer and got influenza on the same day." So the building was completely empty of Jews.

Abd Al-Aziz: Much has been written about this. 150 Congressmen demanded an inquiry.

[…]

Egyptian General (Ret.), Dr. Mahmoud Khalaf, Egyptian Channel 1, May 5, 2005

It was announced that (Vice) President Dick Cheney– this was published in the Washington Post – Cheney had called the secret phone on the American president's, and told him it's an "inside job", that there were traitors within the White House. The president slammed the phone and told his aides: "Air Force 1 is next," and he gave the order to land.

They published these things, not us, and in the Washington Post no less! On September 12th and 13th the press reported this, and the questions were asked.

But all the questions stopped, and nothing was said about this once the American President accused (bin Laden).

[…]

Saudi Women's Rights Activist Suheila Zein Al-'Abedin Hammad, Al-Arabiya TV, April 12, 2005

Interviewer: You believe that global Zionism is behind 9/11?

Suheila Hammad: Yes, I have evidence for this and if you wish, I could present it. In the two books I provided endless evidence of this.

Interviewer: OK, but How do Osama bin Laden and Al-Qa'eda fit into this equation?

Suheila Hammad: Osama bin Laden? How could Osama bin Laden possibly carry out such a huge plot in the world's leading superpower, with its (renowned) intelligence agencies and defense department?

Interviewer: Just to set things straight, do you believe that Osama bin Laden was used by global Zionism or that he had nothing to do with it and his name got mixed up in this by chance?

Suheila Hammad: They got him involved from the beginning. He serves their goals.

Interviewer: You mean he works for them?

Suheila Hammad: Of course, who created Osama bin Laden? wasn't it the US?

Interviewer: (What's your evidence) that Zionism - and not only Al-Qa'eda - were behind 9/11?

Suheila Hammad: It is well known that it was premeditated. If not for the events of 9/11 – would the US have been able to occupy Afghanistan and Iraq and to interfere so bluntly in the affairs of the Arab and Islamic nation? Not only that, but now sanctions may be imposed on Sudan and Darfour.

[…]

Interviewer: Another question: Who do you think is behind the terrorism against Saudi Arabia?

Suheila Hammad: Zionism, of course.

[…]

Egyptian Professor Abd Al-Sabour Shahin, Saudi Channel 1, August 8, 2005

Shahin: One day, we awoke to the crime of 9/11, which hit the tallest buildings in New York, the Empire State Building (sic). There is no doubt that not a single Arab or Muslim had anything to do with these events. The incident was fabricated as a pretext to attack Islam and Muslims. The plan was to take over the world's energy sources, and to achieve this control by force and not by agreement or negotiations, by interests, free trade, or anything like that. This is what they wanted.

[…]

I believe a dirty Zionist hand carried out this act. Zionism has taken the opportunity to escalate the war in Palestine, killing hundreds of thousands so far, while we watch from the sidelines in astonishment and ask: What's going on?

[…]

Egyptian Author Hassan Al-Bana, Sahar 1 TV, September 11, 2004

Interviewer: Dr. Hasan, you talk of the perpetrator. Are you saying there was an Israeli plan ready for operation?

Dr. Hasan Al-Bana: The scenario was prepared by Israel and the US.

Henry Ford and George Bush attended the Jonathan Conference in 1984. They agreed with Netanyahu on the scenario for the bombing of the Twin Towers. When Netanyahu was asked how a force can be mobilized… He said: "In America you have religious factions who oppose abortions in hospitals. This religious sentiment can be exploited and channeled into these kinds of operations." This all exists (in writing). Anybody who read Uprooting Terrorism (sic.) and many other American books (would understand).

[…]

Ahmad Yousuf, editor-in-chief of the Washington-based Middle East Magazine, Al-Manar TV, December 30, 2004

Yousuf: These events [9/11] were preceded by very detailed planning, conducted by strategists who wove the strands of this plot. Some people were probably recruited, and, as has been pointed out by a certain Western intellectual, Israel excels at espionage within the U.S., and is capable of disguising many operations as Islamic. In other words, Israel is capable of penetrating certain Islamic circles, of directing and running them behind the scenes, so that they will conduct operations from which Israel benefits.

[…]

We are told by many Americans that even Pearl Harbor… In order to bring America into the war… There is much talk about a plot that was hatched to bring about the attack on Pearl Harbor, so that the U.S. could justify entering this war and so that it would be easy to convince the American people to pay the billions of dollars and sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives – to wage this war, so that some U.S. corporations and individuals will protect their interests, in this war with Japan and Germany.

[…]

Anwar ‘Ishqi, director of the Middle East Center for Strategic Studies in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Al-Jazeera TV, February 16, 2005

’Ishqi: The CFR group is the secret government in America. They are the ones who came up with [globalization], and they are headed by David Rockefeller. They control and have hegemony over the world economy. Today's globalization is an outcome of this. Therefore, the agreement or coalition between them and Bin Laden's group developed the planning of Bin Laden's group. The Bin Laden group… it's improbable that someone who strolls in the mountains with a walking stick could plan things like this and upset the entire world and become the rival of the American president.

[…]

Muhammad Ali Al-Jozo, the Mufti of Mt. Lebanon, ANB TV, July 24, 2005

Al-Jozo: I cannot give bin Laden credit for the operation in America (9/11). He does not have the capabilities, and his personality in no way suggests that he may carry out an operation like those that occurred in America London, or Madrid. There are Zionist hands...

Host: You are trying to exonerate Al-Qaeda completely, even though it issues communiqués and...

Al-Jozo: It issues communiqués, but it cannot... I've said... I visited the US several times before this happened (9/11), and even clerics were thoroughly searched.

[…]

”The New Fascism” – an Iranian TV series

Iranian strategic expert 'Ali 'Askari: We have seen that 9/11 was a domestic need of the American administration as well as an external need. So, the following suspicions grow stronger: Either the Americans were involved in this matter or they let the events of 9/11 develop as they developed.

Iranian political expert Manouchehr Mohammadi: There are many events like these in American history. It has been proven that the Japanese military attack on Pearl Harbor and on the American war ships was planned in advance and implemented with the authorization, support, and encouragement of US President Roosevelt.

These passages are just a taste of the more complete set of transcripts.

And French Author Thierry Meyssan was carried on Jaam-e Jam 2 TV (Iran) on August 30, 2005 claiming that the 9/11 attacks were a U.S. government operation.

We happen to know a bit about conspiracy theories, and especially the Kennedy assassination. We don't think such theories are dangerous in the American context. Americans (at least outside a narrow circle of hard-core buffs) aren't seriously alienated from the U.S. political system, conspiracy views notwithstanding.

Indeed, it's sort of a parlor game. "What's your theory" is an invitation to engage in entertaining speculation. If one answers such a query with "Oswald, all by himself" one gets a look that says "spoilsport!"

But these kinds of theories, in the Arab context, are big trouble.

They are evidence of an unwillingness to come to terms with, and deal with, extremists in the Moslem world. There is also a deep strain of anti-Semitism and an irrational hatred of Israel.

Unlike bigotry on the part of the powerful directed toward those will less power (historic racism of white Americans toward blacks), this is bigotry on the part of those who are less powerful directed at those who are more powerful.

Such bigotry virtually always ends up hurting the bigots far more than the objects of the bigotry.

Militant Islam can hurt the West at the margins (as the 9/11 attacks, and attacks in Madrid and London show), but it can condemn people in Moslem countries to continued backwardness.

The Arab media aren't always as paranoid as the above clips might suggest. On August 29, 2005 Al-Jazeera TV interviewed New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who told the audience:

And the Arab Muslim world has to take responsibility for its extremists, and not just say: "That's not Islam" . . . It's Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda that is making a religious argument, and if other Muslims don't speak up and call that - delegitimize it - by its real name, then inevitably, inevitably, people in the West and other places are going to say: "If you won't draw a line, then we will." I don't want that to happen at all, but I fear it will happen.

The stakes are higher for Moslems than they are for the West.