Kuwait City, May 1…In the aftermath of 9/11 the Arab street was roiled by rumors that the Israeli espionage agency Mossad was responsible for the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. The Israelis had planned the bombings, it was alleged, to goad the US into declaring genocidal war on the Arab world.
Now Ayman al-Zawahiri, Deputy Commander of Al Qaeda, has come forward to say that was all a lie. The rumor of the Israeli plot was really a Shiite Iranian plot to discredit the Sunni Arabs. In a two hour audio tape posted on the Internet he angrily declares that the “Jews were victims, not perpetrators. Our victims.”
According to the BBC, Zawahiri said that reports of Israeli involvement were broadcast within hours of the attacks on Al-Manar, the Hezbollah television station in Shiite Southern Lebanon.
“The purpose of the lie is clear,” he said. “To suggest that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no one else in history.” Zawahiri accused “Iranian media” of “[snapping] up this lie and repeating it.”
Zawahiri also complained that the “Jews take credit for everything.” He cited the Biblical story of the Exodus from Egypt. “Jews say that God parted the Red Sea to give them a miraculous escape, but this is not true. Hebrews were undocumented immigrant workers like Mexicans in the US. They were happy in Egypt. But when they finished building the fortress cities Pithom and Ramses the Pharaoh had no further use for them and expelled them to die in the desert.”
Zawahiri said that Jews claim responsibility for the crucifixion of Christ, but this is just another a lie. The true story is told in the Koran, he said. Jesus was brought to heaven by Allah and Judas Iscariot was crucified in his place, the Koran says.
“The Jews did not escape from Egypt,” he said. “They did not kill Christ. They did not bomb the World Trade Center. It is time to put a stop to these Zionist lies.”
