September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack/Zionist conspiracy theories

In response to the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, Arab government-sponsored newspapers were immediately filled with articles and opinion pieces stating that the Israeli military or Zionist supporters were most likely responsible. Most of these articles based this claim on either fabricated facts, or baseless conjectures (basing on which the CIA or MI6 could have been as likely contestors), and are seen by the vast majority of people all over the world as yet another blood libel against the Jews. Recent videos of bin Laden, in which he describes his planning of the attacks leave many with doubts as to the authenticity of the tapes due to the poor visual and audio quality of the tapes. A closer inspection of the video tape of the so-called "confession" of Bin Laden reveals a very real possibility that the man in the tape is not in fact Bin Laden. Even mainstream US media have stated that it could have been a "Bin Laden double."

For a great many within the Arab world, this terrorist act was seen as a conspiracy to make the world hate all Arabs and Muslims, and therefore people perceived to be enemies of the Arabs must really be to blame. Western-educated Arabs and Muslims in moderate Muslim nations like Turkey were less likely to accept such views.

Moderate Muslims, including Hamad Abd Al-Aziz Al-'Isa and Suleiman Al-Nkidanhave, have condemned these conspiracy theories as both false and anti-Semitic. [http://www.chretiens-et-juifs.org/Terrorisme/Israel_did'nt_do_it_Saudi_Columnists.htm Israel didn't do it]

There is a definite logical possibility that Zionists were behind 9/11, among such the odd trail of "evidence," which, if it legitimately was evidence connecting the individuals in question to the crime, would highlight the stupidity of these terrorists in the most basic methods of covering one's trail.

Representative examples of the accusation against Israelis and Zionists include:

"Six Israelis suspected of involvement in the attacks on New York and Washington were arrested in the US, to be later released. This confirms our strong suspicions about the involvement of Israel's Mossad in the ugly crime. If we look carefully into this matter, we find no more influential sides in the US that the Israeli Mossad agents, who have the ability to penetrate and the capability to execute with high efficiency."

[Editorial in Okaz, Saudi newspaper, November 6, 2001 on The Times of India online.]

"Bin Laden's Al-Qa'ida is a possible suspect, but I would also suggest the involvement of the Israeli Mossad. The scare may be an attempt to shift attention from greater Israeli atrocities in the Palestinian territories."

[Al-Ahram Weekly Online, Egyptian newspaper, October 25-31, 2001, "Who's doing it?" by Mamdouh Attiya]

"The Syrian official [Syrian Ambassador to Tehran Turki Mohammad Saqar] said that the racist Zionist regime will be the beneficiary of the recent incidents and added that one day after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, Israel killed 12 Palestinians and was proud of it. He also said that there are reliable evidence to prove that the Israelis have been involved in these incidents and added that no Jewish employee was present in the World Trade Organization buildings on the day of the attack, and Sharon's visit to the U.S. was postponed before the incident."

Tehran Times.com, Iranian newspaper, October 25, 2001; Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), October, 24, 2001

"Everyone is assuming that Islamic terrorists are to blame for the Boca Raton Anthrax incident. We believe that the terrorists are actually Zionists...They, the Zionists, want to silence us because they do not like what we write. Everyone is assuming that the dangers we face is from Islamic terrorists, but our experience has been different. We fear Zionist terrorists more."

[Syria Times online, Syrian newspaper, October 16, 2001, reprinting an article under the headline, "Anthrax Terrorists May be Zionists," by Hector Carreon, head of the Nation of Aztlan]

"The September 11 terrorist attacks on World Trade Centre (WTC) in New York and Pentagon in Washington were masterminded by an international Zionist organization, 'The Elders of Zion,' as a reaction to the strong condemnation of the religio-ethnic cleansing policy being carried out by the Israelis in the Palestinian territories at the 3rd UN Conference against Racism recently held in the South African town of Durban. According to an article published in a Lahore-based Urdu weekly, 'The Jihad Times,' the 300-member apex Zionist body consisting of peers of the Judaism in the world, decided to avenge the anti-Israel bashing at the Durban moot. It tasked the Zionist-controlled FBI and the Israeli secret agency Shabak, just second to Mossad, to carry out the devastating attacks, writes the weekly on the basis of strong evidence.... Another extremely important information leaked out was that around 4,000 Israelis working in the World Trade Center had been issued a secret directive before the incident not to report for duty on September 11 which they complied with. This is evident from the fact that not a single Israeli or American Jew working in the WTC was reported killed or missing. The EoZ [Elders of Zion] is learnt to have instructed the Zionist controlled media to unleash a vilification campaign against the Muslims portraying them as the perpetrators of the attacks on the U.S. cities."

"Zionists Could Be Behind Attack on WTC and Pentagon," posted October 14, 2001 on the IslamWeb site, registered to the State of Qatar Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs. The "facts" stated in this article are all outright fabrications.]

According to the Washington Post (Oct. 13, 2001), surveys in the Muslim nation of Pakistan showed that 71% of Pakistanis believed that 4000 Jews stayed away from the WTC that day because they were part of a vast Jewish conspiracy, and this has advance warning of the terrorist attacks.

"Following the incident, Muslims and Arabs stopped feeling that is was safe to leave [their homes in America].... Muslims do not feel safe even going to the hospitals, because some Jewish doctors in one of the hospitals poisoned sick Muslim children, who then died.... Although the Americans suspect that the Zionists are behind the act [the terrorist attacks], none had the courage to talk about it in public."

Egyptian Sheikh Muhammad Al-Gamei'a, the Al-Azhar University representative in the U.S. and former Imam of the Islamic Cultural Center and Mosque of New York City, in an interview for the Lilatalqadr Web site an unofficial Al-Azhar University site, October 4, 2001 (The Middle East Research Institute (MEMRI), October 17, 2001, No. 288)

"With the announcement of the attacks at the World Trade Center in New York, the international media, particularly the Israeli one, hurried to take advantage of the incident and started mourning 4000 Israelis who work at the two towers. Then suddenly, no one ever mentioned anything about those Israelis and later it became clear that they remarkably did not show up in their jobs the day the incident took place. No one talked about any Israeli being killed or wounded in the attacks. Arab diplomatic sources revealed to the al-Watan newspaper published in Oman that those Israelis remained absent that day based on hints from the Israeli General Security Apparatus, the Shabak, the fact which evoked unannounced suspicions on American officials who wanted to know how the Israeli government learned about the incident before it occurred, and the reasons why it refrained from informing the U.S authorities of the information it had."

English version of the Web site of Lebanon's Al-Manar Television, written on September 17, 2001.

"You must look inside. F-16s don't scramble in time, though they had 18 minutes after the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Radar gets jammed. Transponders are turned off. A flight to Los Angeles turns to Washington and is in the air for 45 minutes, and the world's most sophisticated air defense doesn't go into action. I tell you, it was a coup [attempt], and I can't say for sure who was behind it, but it's the Israelis who are creating so much misery in the world. The Israelis don't want to see any power in Washington unless it's subservient to their interests, and President Bush has not been subservient."

Major General Hamid Gul, former head of Pakistan's intelligence service, in an interview with Rob Nordland of Newsweek, September 14, 2001.

"What happened is, in my opinion, the product of Jewish, Israeli, and American Zionism, and the act of the great Jewish Zionist mastermind that controls the world's economy, media, and politics.... The goal of the suicide operations in New York was, in my opinion, to push the American people, President Bush, and NATO to submit even more to the Jewish Zionist ideology and the historical goals [it has held] since the Basel Congress in 1897, under the Zionist-Jewish slogan of 'Islamic terror'.... We have said in the past that Jewish-Israeli-American Zionism is leading the region to disaster, and that it is trying to lead the Americans and its worldwide allies to world disaster. Perhaps what happened on American [ground] is the beginning of the world disaster."

Al-Dustour, Jordanian newspaper, September 13, 2001, by columnist Ahmad Al-Muslih (MEMRI, September 20, 2001, No. 270)

"It is clear that Israel is the one to benefit greatly from the bloody, loathsome terror operation that occurred yesterday, and that it seeks to benefit still more by accusing the Arabs and Muslims of perpetrating this loathsome attack.... Only Israel does not fear the discovery that the Jews are behind this operation, if indeed it was so; who in the US or outside it would dare to accuse them, as every blow to them means talk of a new 'Holocaust?' They, more than anyone, are capable of hiding a criminal act they perpetrate, and they can be certain that no one will ask them about what they do."

Al-Dustour, Jordanian newspaper, September 13, 2001, by columnist Rakan Al-Majali (MEMRI, September 20, 2001, No. 270)

"Osama bin Laden and those with him have said what indicates that they stand behind this carefully planned act. We, in turn, ask: Are bin Laden and his supporters the only ones behind what happened or is there another power with advanced technical expertise that acted with them?"

Prince Sultan, Saudi Arabia's Defense Minister, Seyassah newspaper, Kuwait, October 22, 2001 (Reuters)

"I don't think it would be contentious to say that the unprecedented disaster witnessed by New York and Washington the day before yesterday was planned and executed by American citizens."

Al-Ahram Weekly Online, Egyptian newspaper, September 13-19, 2001, article entitled "An Inside Job?" by Salah Montasser

"There is a possibility that this was an [act of] ancient retribution.... The US declared war on Japan, and used the atomic bomb for the first time, against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. [The bomb] killed more than 221,983 Japanese, and was the cause of the Japanese defeat and the end of the war in 1945. Has the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki been resurrected sixty years later?"

Tishrin, Syrian newspaper, September 13, 2001, by columnist Hassan M, Yussef (MEMRI, September 20, 2001, No. 270)

See also: Conspiracy theory; Anti-Semitism