Decade of Deceit: Anti-Semitic 9/11 Theories 10 Years

Later

August 30, 2011

INTRODUCTION

In the ten years since the September 11 terrorist attacks on America, conspiracy theories surrounding the attacks have become an entrenched propaganda industry. These assaults on memory and history attempt to place blame for the attacks on sources other than Al Qaeda, such as the U.S. government. Prominent among such 9/11 conspiracy theories are those that make the anti-Semitic claim that Jews—whether Israeli, American, or both-- were involved in planning and executing the attacks. This anti-Semitic faction is only a part of the so- called "9/11 truth movement," yet it is vocal and pervasive, particularly on the Internet. While its origins began within hours of the attacks themselves, a new chorus of voices—who claim not to be anti-Jewish but simply anti- Zionist—have more recently emerged to become the most popular promoters of these ideas.

The goal for these anti-Semitic "truthers" is to convince the public that the actual terrorists never could have masterminded or conducted the 9/11 attacks. Instead, they claim, American and/or Israeli Jews were the only ones who had the "motive, means, and opportunity" to carry them out. Blaming Jews for manipulating world events for their own benefit is not new–it is at the very root of ideological anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories are merely a recent manifestation of age-old allegations that a Jewish cabal plots deceitful, sinister actions in order to gain or maintain power. Anticipating criticism, a number of these anti-Semitic conspiracists now try to immunize themselves against charges of anti-Semitism by making disclaimers up front about not being anti-Semitic. Their own works and record, however, blatantly contradict their innocuous self-characterizations.

The most prominent promoters of these anti-Semitic conspiracy theories today tend less often to be white supremacists and right-wing anti-Semites. Rather they are more commonly members of a group of anti-Israel conspiracists who see the 9/11 attacks as one of a series of "" operations that Israel has carried out to manufacture a war against its Muslim enemies (the term "false flag" operations refers to acts of sabotage or terror conducted by one perpetrator but designed to appear as if conducted by another, with the goal of setting the victim at odds with the false perpetrator).

THE EVOLUTION OF ANTI-SEMITIC 9/11 CONSPIRACY THEORIES

The initial array of anti-Semitic theories that circulated soon after the 9/11 attacks all still have currency today, but certain conspiracy theories have increased in popularity over the past decade. For example, the most repeated early theory alleged that 4,000 Israelis (or Jews, in some versions) were told to stay home from the World Trade Center on 9/11. This theory, at least in the United States, has receded to the background, while other major anti-Semitic conspiracy theories have come to the forefront. 1

The most popular conspiratorial allegations include the following:

 The Mossad was behind the attacks. Variations of this theory assert that the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, was behind the 9/11 attacks; the "proof" is the "five dancing Israelis" arrested on 9/11 who were allegedly celebrating as the Twin Towers burned. Although this theory has circulated since 2001, the initial scenario painted the five Israelis as "spies" who knew that the attacks were going to happen and chose not to inform the U.S government. Over time, the theory evolved and today proponents claim that the five Israelis were actually directing the attacks and began dancing when they realized that their mission of creating a false flag operation had been accomplished.  Jewish neo-conservatives were behind the attacks. Proponents of this theory claim that neo- conservative American officials of Jewish faith within the Bush administration, particularly Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Douglas Feith, methodically worked out a plan, with the assistance of the Mossad, to carry out the attacks in order to benefit Israel. This theory alleges that these officials orchestrated a plan well before 9/11, with the goal of invading Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries to allow the U.S. and Israel to seize control of resources and power in that area.  The Jewish controlled media and government work to prevent the truth from emerging. The "truth" about Israeli and Jewish involvement in the 9/11 attacks will not be allowed to emerge, claim conspiracy theorists, because Jews were in charge of the 9/11 Commission report and actually control the media and government.

In addition to these key themes, a multitude of lesser conspiracy theories also continue to circulate. These range from an alleged Israeli art student spy ring keeping track of the hijackers before the attacks, to Israeli companies controlling U.S telecommunications, to Jewish owners wanting to gain financially from the destruction of the World Trade Center complex. These theories are still persuasive for anti-Semites who want to see a Jewish or Israeli involvement in 9/11 because of their belief that Jews are deceitful, ruthless, and willing to undertake any action, no matter how dire the consequences, to advance their power and influence.

CONSPIRACISTS BEHIND THE THEORIES

Within days of the 9/11 attacks, anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories began appearing in the United States and abroad. In the Middle East, Al-Manar, a Lebanese television station linked to Hezbollah, was one of the main sources for the false claim that 4,000 Israelis had been told to stay home on the day of the terrorist attacks. In the United States, publications on the extreme right, particularly the (AFP), an anti-Semitic conspiracy-oriented newspaper, also played a big role in promoting a variety of anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories.

Although the AFP is still a regular source of such propaganda, 9/11 anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are now more influentially being promoted by a network of anti-Israel conspiracists who endorse and reinforce each other's work. They blame Israel for numerous nefarious deeds and false flag operations.

Among the key figures in this group of conspiracists are Gordon Duff, who runs the anti-Semitic Web site Veterans Today; Alan Sabrosky, a former U.S. Army War College instructor who writes for Veterans Today; and Kevin Barrett, who runs the Truth Jihad Web site and Internet radio show. They have become the most popular promoters of theories claiming that Israelis and Jewish members of the Bush Administration carried out the 9/11 attacks as a false flag operation to provoke a war against Israel's enemies. 2

Articles by Sabrosky and Duff promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories have been widely circulated, picked up by the conspiracy press, the extreme right press, and elsewhere, including Islamic media sources in the United States. These articles consistently paint Israel or the "Israel lobby" as devious and complicit in mass murder to further Jewish goals of acquiring power and destroying enemies. They further connect Israel's alleged masterminding of 9/11 attacks to claims regarding Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinians, making the 9/11 theories part and parcel of an overall anti-Israel agenda.

Gordon Duff

Gordon Duff is an anti-Semitic conspiracist whose innocuous-sounding Web site, Veterans Today, features anti- Israel and materials. The site also offers a platform for numerous columnists who promote anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories, as well as Duff's own screeds.

Duff's visions of conspiracy are typical of the latter day anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracists. For example, in a July 2010 essay, "America's Tarnished Military Partnership with Israel," Duff asserts that the "five dancing Israelis" arrested on 9/11 were part of a "team of Israeli intelligence agents" who remotely guided the planes into the World Trade Center with the knowledge of "top members of America's military." He further claims that the U.S.'s own security is threatened by a nefarious and disloyal group of Americans who have dual U.S./Israeli citizenship and who control government organizations and private companies. Indicative of the reach of such writings, this essay was reposted widely across the Internet, especially on conspiracy-oriented and right-wing extremist Web sites. It saw publication in print, too, in places such as The First Freedom, a virulently white supremacist and anti-Semitic Alabama-based newspaper.

In other columns, Duff paints Israel's alleged role in the 9/11 attacks as part of a bigger picture of Israel's purported ruthlessness, particularly toward the Palestinians. He depicts Israel as willing to do anything to maintain hegemony in the Middle East.

In March 2010, Duff wrote a column that included an interview with Alan Sabrosky, whose anti-Semitic rants have become a mainstay on the Veterans Today site. In the column Duff supports Sabrosky's views. Duff begins the column by asserting that "the Israeli lobby' is "the most powerful and ruthless group in the world." Duff then promotes Sabrosky's view that the 9/11 attacks could not have happened "without the full resources of both the CIA and Mossad and that 9/11 served the interests of both agencies quite well."

Alan Sabrosky

Sabrosky, a regular columnist for the Veterans Today, is currently one of the most cited sources for anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories. Sabrosky, like Duff, typically ties these theories to other anti-Israel themes. When Sabrosky alleges that Israel and the Mossad were behind 9/11, he inevitably brings up Israel's alleged treatment of the Palestinians or its attacks on Gaza. Sabrosky has repeatedly made comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany, in which Israel fares far worse than the Nazi regime in his weighing.

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Because Sabrosky once taught at the U.S. Army War College and claims to have some Jewish background, he is often seen as an authoritative source by those who want to believe that Israel and Jews were behind the 9/11 attacks.

In the March 2010 column posted by Gordon Duff to Veterans Today, Sabrosky asserts that when Americans "fully understand" the "truth" about Israel and 9/11, "they will sweep aside those [who support Israel] in politics, the press and the pulpits alike whose lies and disloyalty brought this about [and] may well leave Israel looking like Carthage after the Romans finished with it." Such writings can have long reaches; this same column, for example, appeared in the March 26, 2010, edition of The Muslim Observer, a prominent English-language Muslim American paper with national distribution.

Sabrosky's own columns for Veterans Today are frequently re-posted on various sites on the Internet. In them, he repeatedly asserts that "Zionists" in the United States control the U.S. government and mainstream media. In a July 2011 column ("Riposte Against Zionism: Go Tell it to the People"), for example, he writes,

[Zionists and their Christian Zionist allies] have won the campaign for control of the mainstream media, and more than that, of many publishing houses and research institutes that do most of the regional and issue-specific work in national security affairs. They have won control of the Congress (both houses, both parties) and have a commanding lead in public opinion…

In a June 2011 Veterans Today column, "Demystifying 9/11: Israel and the Tactics of Mistake," Sabrosky writes that the Mossad and U.S government officials (namely Jewish neo-conservatives) were responsible for the 9/11 attacks and carried them out for Israel's benefit. He asserts:

I am also absolutely certain as a strategic analyst that 9/11 itself, from which all else flows, was a classic Mossad-orchestrated operation. But Mossad did not do it alone. They needed local help within America (and perhaps elsewhere) and they had it, principally from some alumni of PNAC (the misnamed Project for a New American Century) and their affiliates within and outside of the US Government (USG), who in the 9/11 attacks got the "catalytic event" they needed and craved to take the US to war on Israel's behalf…"

In the same column, Sabrosky claims that only one country—Israel-- had the incentive to carry out the 9/11 attacks. He writes, "[Israel] is the one state with a positive incentive, if it believed it could get away with it, which is to enrage the American public against Muslims generally and Arabs in particular, and to make the US an active belligerent in the region – spending American lives and treasure in the service of Israel's interests."

Sabrosky also suggests that activists should try to connect Israel to 9/11 by every chance they get and focus on state and local organizations and the local media outside of Jewish population centers to spread the word about Israel's alleged role in the attacks.

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In another Veterans Today column, from March 2011, "Israel's Hidden Faces, A Long Day's Night for Us All," Sabrosky reiterates most of the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that have been in circulation since 9/11 and groups them under the heading, "So much links Israel to 9/11—Only a public confession is missing." Among the many links he mentions are conspiracy theories alleging that 4,000 Israelis were warned to stay home on 9/11, that Israeli companies controlled security at airports affected by the 9/11 attacks, and that the "five Israelis" purportedly set up their cameras to film the planes hitting the Twin Towers before the attacks began .

In the same column, Sabrosky displays a chart titled "Zionist control of the US mainstream media," which is clearly derived from a publication, "Who Rules America?" earlier produced by the neo-Nazi National Alliance. Sabrosky indicates that the information from the chart, which lists Jewish heads of media companies, is from 2001-2002. That is also when the National Alliance originally published the booklet with the very same data. The information in Sabrosky's chart also follows the same order in which the data was presented by the National Alliance in its booklet.

In a July 2011 interview with Kevin Barrett, who runs the Truth Jihad Web site and Internet radio show, Sabrosky asserts that exposing Israel's alleged role in the 9/11 attacks will "contain" Israel's ambitions and, at the same time, help the Palestinian cause. He declares:

The gate to containing Israeli ambitions, and to uncovering Israeli crimes, and thus saving Palestine, is in the United States, and not in Jerusalem or Gaza or Ramallah. And second, the lock to that gate is not in Washington, D.C., or New York City, which are the centers of Zionist power, but in the heartland of the United States where they're generally weak. And third: the key to that gate is 9/11.

Despite Sabrosky's constant depiction of Israel as sinister and his rehashing of classic anti-Semitic myths about Jewish control over America and world affairs, he denies being anti-Semitic.

Jim Fetzer

Fetzer is one of the co-founders of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, an organization that is composed of academics and others who believe that the U.S. government and possibly others played a role in the 9/11 attacks. He is also another columnist for Veterans Today and has written two articles for the Op-Ed News site in which he promotes anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories, despite insisting he is not anti-Semitic. In both pieces, Fetzer defends research into Israel's alleged role in the 9/11 attacks.

In a June 2009 column, "Is 9/11 Research 'Anti-Semitic'?" Fetzer declares that a researcher's anti-Semitism should not be grounds for dismissing research about Israel and 9/11. Fetzer then writes about addressing the issue of anti-Semitism while expounding on the likelihood that Israel was involved in the 9/11 attacks. Fetzer writes:

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[The issue of anti-Semitism]… has been used as a political club to attack research on 9/11 whenever consideration has been given to the possibility of Israeli involvement in the crime. That is hardly a stretch since Israel has probably benefited from 9/11 more than any other political entity.

Fetzer uses the same arguments in an earlier Op-Ed News column from April 2008, "9/11 and the Neo-Con Agenda," Fetzer predicts that he would be called "anti-Semitic" but goes on to claim that there are "disturbing indications" that Israel might have been involved in the 9/11 attacks. Aside from mentioning the "five dancing Israelis," Fetzer focuses on American government officials of Jewish background whom he claims had dual U.S./Israeli citizenship and might have been in on a plot to carry out the 9/11 attacks. His theory is that these neo-conservative government officials—including Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearle and Douglas Feith—were more loyal to Israel than the U.S. and wouldn't have hesitated to help Israel further its goals. Fetzer then expands this conspiratorial view to include the Palestinian issue. He writes:

It is not anti-Semitic to object to the expansion of illegal settlements, the starvation and killing of the Palestinian people, or the butchering of a peace activist with a bulldozer! For these gross violations of human rights, we have the government of Israel to thank. We need laws to keep dual citizens from decision-making and policy-shaping position in the US government. Who knows whose loyalty they respect?"

Kevin Barrett

Barrett is a former instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who currently runs the Truth Jihad Web site and Internet radio show and is a co-founder of Muslims for 9/11 Truth which appears to consist mostly of a blog that refutes the idea that any Muslims were behind the 9/11 attacks. Barrett uses his radio show to offer a platform to other 9/11 conspiracists, including Gordon Duff and Alan Sabrosky. Although Barrett first gained national media attention for his view that the U.S. government was behind the 9/11 attacks, he has since made statements in which he alleges that Israel was also involved in the attacks. Like Duff, Sabrosky, and Fetzer, Barrett's views of 9/11 are inextricably linked to his anti-Zionist views. Barrett also has stated that he has been influenced by Christopher Bollyn, an anti-Semite and one of the earliest promoters of anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories.

In his 2007 book, Truth Jihad: My Epic Struggle against the 9/11 Big Lie, Barrett compares neo-conservative members of the Bush administration to Hitler, whom he claims was one of their mentors. "Terrified by their collapsing minds," he writes, "and the impending collapses of Israel and the American empire it depends on, the neocon crazies set off the 9/11 firecracker, crawled out of the basement, and imposed their madness on the nation and the world."

In an April 2011 interview on Intifada-Palestine, an anti-Israel Web site that features the works of several conspiratorial anti-Israel and anti-Semitic writers," Barrett declares, "I know, not just believe, that 9/11 was a false-flag attack, that many individuals at or near the top of the US Executive Branch, military, and intelligence

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apparatus were complicit in the attack, and that the state of Israel and its American agents were heavily involved."

In a July 2011 interview between Barrett and Alan Sabrosky on "Truth Jihad Radio," the two repeatedly refer to Israel's alleged role in the 9/11 attacks and Zionist control of the government and media.

Barrett and Sabrosky agreed that the way to expose Israel's alleged crimes is to tie that country to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Barrett notes that he's been trying to get people to look at Israel's supposed role in the 9/11 attacks for years.

VIDEOS, DVDS and WEB SITES

Anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracists have released a flood of videos, DVDs and Web sites to promote the notion that Jews and Israel were behind the 9/11 attacks. Video Web sites like YouTube and Google Video have become particularly popular ways to find audiences for the . Two videos in particular, Missing Links: The Definitive Truth About 9/11, produced by Mike Delaney, and War by , by Ryan Dawson, make virulently anti-Semitic claims about the 9/11 attacks. The two films, both over two hours long, have been viewed by tens of thousands of people despite their length.

In "War by Deception," made originally in 2008 and updated in 2011, Dawson presents the "standard" anti- Semitic conspiratorial view of the 9/11 attacks as a false flag operation carried out by Israel. He lays out one after another that blame Jews and the Mossad for the 9/11 attacks and for the subsequent war in Iraq. Dawson, who runs an anti neo-conservative forum, paints the Israeli government and Jewish members of the Bush Administration as part of an evil cabal that wanted to control the world. In his narration, Dawson asks "Who is compounding the lies? Who is continuing the narrative? Who has the power to cover it up?" His answer is that the "source of lies" about the 9/11 attacks is "Israeli intelligence and the Zionist cabal."

Like other figures who promote anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories, Dawson's views about Israel's alleged involvement in the 9/11 attacks are linked to his view of Israel as a "brutal apartheid regime." In the video, he also attacks neo-conservatives for passing legislation that took away Americans' freedoms:

9/11 was that the neo-cons yearned for. It was 9/11 that acted as the catalyst for both war and sweeping pre-written legislation to create a security panic state which stripped away civil liberties and constitutional rights for the sake of the military industrial complex.

Dawson also promotes the idea that the director of the 9/11 Commission appointed by Bush to lead the investigation into the attacks, Philip Zelikow, was a "Zionist warmonger" and that the commission was a sham that covered up Israel's role in 9/11. "We are being manipulated," Dawson claims, "by a tiny minority in a global game of theft and murder of our fellow man."

The 2008 conspiracy video "Missing Links," on the other hand, takes a different tack in blaming Jews and Israel for carrying out the attacks. Produced by Mike Delaney, "Missing Links" is even more explicitly anti-Semitic than "War by Deception," because it focuses not just on particular Jews in the Bush administration but rather demonizes all Jews. The video depicts a mythical group, the sayanim, defined in the video as a network of everyday Jews who carry out nefarious deeds to serve Israel and the Jews. 7

The narrator of "Missing Links" states the purpose of the video:

We will examine a group of people who are a corrosive mafia with a racial and religious cohesion…It will become clear how fraudulent theories on 9/11 have been fomented and end up benefitting this group and how the foundational crime of September 11 has been the catalyst for multiple and far-reaching crimes by this well-organized supremacist mafia.

Delaney continues this theme of a Jewish criminal enterprise throughout the video. For example, in talking about the neo-conservative think tank, People for the New American Century, with which a number of Bush appointees were associated, the video refers to it as "a Jewish criminal network." The video's narrator explains that "what we are talking about are the goals of a racist, supremacist Jewish power elite and the hundreds of thousands of everyday Jews who serve in the sayanim network."

Like other anti-Semitic conspiracists, Delaney alleges that many of the officials who worked in the Bush administration had dual U.S./Israeli citizenship, and that they controlled the government and its policies. He also alleges that Michael Chertoff, the first head of the Department of Homeland Security, came from a family whose loyalties were to Israel and that Chertoff authored the Patriot Act, which he refers to as a "traitorous bill."

RE-DISCOVER 9/11 WEB SITE

One of the most virulent Web sites devoted to promoting anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories is ReDiscover 9/11. The site is organized by a small group of people active in the "9/11truth movement" who promote anti- Semitic views. They are presumably frustrated that a large segment of that movement does not believe that Israel and Jews are behind the terrorist attacks. Among this group is Wendy Campbell, an anti-Israel activist; Ed Kendrick, a Missouri dentist who believes that a Jewish criminal network runs the government and media; Zan Overall, a Holocaust denier, and Adrian Salbuchi, an Argentinian who posts numerous conspiratorial videos to YouTube in which he blames "the global power elite" including Jewish groups, for creating a "New World Order." This Re-Discover 9/11group not only blames the Israeli government for carrying out the 9/11 attacks as a "false flag" operation, but also demonizes Jews and spreads anti-Semitic stereotypes. In a section titled, "Introduction: Israel & 9/11," the founders of Re-Discover 9/11 present many anti-Semitic myths about Jewish power. The introduction refers to the mainstream media as an entity whose loyalty is tied to Israel alone and asserts that the Zionist-controlled media also controls the U.S. government to the detriment of American citizens:

Zionist dominated mass media will do anything, and have, to protect the carefully constructed image of Israel as "victim" and "champion of ", which belie it's [sic] reality. The truth is the puppet regime of Israel is no friend of citizens of the United States. Israel is actually another tool to control the government of the United States against the will and best interests of US citizens and our cherished Constitution.

In one ReDiscover 9/11 essay, "Was America Attacked by Muslims on 9/11?" the site demonizes American Jews. Using all sorts of anti-Semitic invective, the essay declares that despite the power and opportunity Jews have had in the U.S. they were greedy for more power and have destroyed the country through their orchestration of the 9/11 attacks and subsequent wars.

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America has truly been the land of opportunity for jews [sic]…Yet these jewish [sic] criminals incinerated nearly 3000 people on September 11th, 2001, and goaded our country into a "war on terror" which has cost over a million lives. The cover-up of this crime has created an outrageous scandal that is tearing this country apart. This is the most heinous, treacherous act ever committed against the United States of America. They have the gall, and the contempt for us to carry out this treasonous crime. We've been nothing but kind and generous to these people, in return they have destroyed our Republic.

Wendy Campbell has expressed her views elsewhere, as well. She published an article that contained anti- Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories on CounterCurrents.org in January 2008. In the article, Campbell states: "I have become totally convinced that along with Americans Bush, Cheney, and Israeli-Americans Wolfowitz, Perle and their neocon cohorts, that Israeli agents played a major role in "making it happen" with regard to the 9-11 attacks.

Like others who spread these theories, those running ReDiscover 9/11 try to disclaim being anti-Semitic by saying that they are distinguishing the evil Jews whom they call "so-called self-styled Jews" from the "good, ethical and religious Jews."

MAINSTREAMING ANTI-SEMITIC 9/11 THEORIES

Anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracists not only create their own Web sites, they are active participants on mainstream social networking sites like Facebook, which play host to a number of groups and individuals who claim that Jews and/or Israelis carried out the 9/11 attacks. The Facebook groups have names such as "Jews Behind 9/11," "Jews did 9/11," and "9/11 was done by the Jews and ." A number of these Facebook pages link to anti-Semitic videos and Web sites.

One Facebook page ("9/11 was an inside (ZIONIST) job – The REAL truth! Expose the REAL terrorists") provides one of the reasons why the conspiracists flock to social media: "[Jews] have infiltrated governments world wide [sic] and they basically control North America. They also own the media that gave us the official obvious 9/11 lie."

Inevitably, the anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories have made inroads into the larger 9/11 conspiracy movement, even among people not generally considered anti-Semitic.

For example, , a popular 9/11 conspiracy video, does not itself focus on anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. However, the video nevertheless draws from the American Free Press, a wellspring of anti-Semitic 9/11 propaganda, as well as the work of anti-Semitic writer Christopher Bollyn, as sources to bolster its claims about the alleged government cover-up of the 9/11 attacks.

Some have gone further. For example, Alan Hart, once a mainstream reporter for the BBC and the Independent Television Network alleged in an May 2010 Internet radio interview with Kevin Barrett that Israel and the Mossad were behind the 9/11 attacks.

After pre-emptively trying to dismiss charges of anti-Semitism, Hart asserts:

I tell you what I honestly believe. I think it started out as an all-Muslim operation, but I think it would have been very quickly penetrated by Mossad agents…My guess is at an early point they said to the bad 9

guys at the CIA, 'Hey this operation is running. What do we do?" And the Zionists and the neo-cons said, 'Let's use it."

Hart's interview has appeared on YouTube and other places on the Internet. His video is just one of thousands online blaming Jews or Israel for 9/11. These videos have been seen by tens of thousands of people and continue to gain currency among those who wish to demonize Israel and the Jews.

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