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About a week ago, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared to the United Nations that most people in the world believe the United States was behind the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
To many people in the West, the statement was ludicrous, almost laughable if it weren’t so incendiary. And surveys show that a majority of the world does not in fact believe that the U.S. orchestrated the attacks.
However, the belief persists strongly among a minority, even with U.S. allies like Turkey or in the U.S. itself. And it cannot be dismissed because it reflects a gulf in politics and perception, especially between the West and many Muslims.
“That theory might be true,” said Ugur Tezer, a 48-year-old businessman who sells floor tiles in the Turkish capital, Ankara. “When I first heard about the attack I thought, ‘Osama,’ but then I thought the U.S. might have done it to suppress the rise of Muslims.”
Compassion for the United States swept the globe right after the attacks, but conspiracy theories were circulating even then. It wasn’t al-Qaida, they said, but the United States or Israel that downed the towers. Weeks after the strikes, at the United Nations, President George W. Bush urged the world not to tolerate “outrageous conspiracy theories” that deflected blame from the culprits.
However, the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan provided fodder for the damning claim that the U.S. killed its own citizens, supposedly to justify military action in the Middle East and to protect Israel. A 2006 survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that significant majorities in Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan and Turkey – all among the most moderate nations in the Islamic world – said they did not believe Arabs carried out the attacks.
Two years later, a poll of 17 nations by WorldPublicOpinion.org, an international research project, found majorities in nine of them believed al-Qaida was behind the attacks. However, the U.S. government was blamed by 36 percent of Turks and 27 percent of Palestinians.
Such beliefs have currency even in the United States. In 2006, a Scripps Howard poll of 1,010 Americans found 36 percent thought it somewhat or very likely that U.S. officials either participated in the attacks or took no action to stop them.
Those who say the attacks might have been an “inside job” usually share antipathy toward the U.S. government, and often a maverick sensibility. Besides Ahmadinejad, high-profile doubters include Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Former Minnesota governor and pro wrestler Jesse Ventura has questioned the official account. Conspiracy theorists have heckled former President Bill Clinton and other prominent Americans during speeches.
Related Articles
- 9/11 conspiracy theories rife in Muslim world (sfgate.com)
- Why majority of Muslims believe that 9/11 was a Conspiracy created by the US Government (english.martinvarsavsky.net)
- 9/11 Conspiracy Theory Not as Popular as Ahmadinejad Says (thelede.blogs.nytimes.com)
- Ahmadinejad U.N. Speech: U.S. Walks Out Over 9/11 Conspiracy Theories (huffingtonpost.com)
- US government behind Sept 11 attacks, Ahmadinejad says (telegraph.co.uk)
- US walks out on Ahmadinejad UN speech (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
Obvious conclusion is, the fellow is an unrepentant hard line radical and his speech opinion shouldn’t be taken for granted. If he is not, he gets paid to act like one, like all Presidents do.
However, the perception in the Arab and Muslim world – including the moderates – that the government of the USA was/is involved in a conspiracy originates from what the World Bank did in an African country way back in the mid 90’s right through the early 2000’s.
While busy on the rampage, they overlooked the fact most owners of the small, medium, large factories were Muslim.
Same applies to the Arab and Muslim investors benefiting of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) facilities, who ironically, were encouraged by the World Bank to invest in the country, complying with privatization guidelines. They lost millions of US Dollars and were not, humanely, satisfied.
They were the first to incite and finance what would spread onto ethnic Dar-es-Salaam, Nairobi, develop into scenic New York, unfortunate events of 9/11. Unless you believe in coincidence, analysis of facts and timing proves the incidence.
Since the World Bank is perceived as an American organization headquartered in the USA; thereby arises the association-perception of a government conspiracy; and, the predictable socio-politico reluctance by the then ruling Administration in admitting the unconscious originator of 9/11 could be an American Group.
Subsequent Administrations follow suit in denial.
Personal greed, political laissez faire, can cost lives, erase symbol assets.
N.B. – Definition of Denial is quoted below. We’re waiting for fair use and reprinting permission, reverting asap with fact-documented evidence.