9/11 was staged: Dr M

The twin towers of the World Trade Center burning after two planes crashed into each building in New York, September 11, 2001. -- PHOTO: AFP

KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA'S former premier Mahathir Mohamad claimed the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, which killed nearly 3,000 people, were staged as an excuse to 'mount attacks on the Muslim world'.

Speaking at the General Conference for the Support of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) here, Tun Dr Mahathir said killing as an excuse for war is not new to the US. He also argued that Israel was created to solve the 'Jewish problem' in Europe, saying the Holocaust had failed as a final solution against the community.

'In September 2001, the World Trade Center was attacked allegedly by terrorists. I am not sure now that Muslim terrorists carried out these attacks. There is strong evidence that the attacks were staged. If they can make Avatar, they can make anything,' The Malaysian Insider reported Dr Mahathir as saying. The former premier said Israel was created after the Europeans failed to massacre the Jewish community.

'The Jews had always been a problem in European countries. They had to be confined to ghettoes and periodically massacred. But still they remained, they thrived and they held whole governments to ransom... Even after their massacre by the Nazis of Germany, they survived to continue to be a source of even greater problems for the world,' said Dr Mahathir, who was noted for his anti-Western and anti-Zionist stand while in power for 22 years, until October 2003.

Dr Mahathir also expressed his disappointment in US President Barack Obama, who marked his first year in office on Wednesday. 'I am a bit disappointed because so far none of his promises has been kept. He promised to get out from Afghanistan but he ended up sending more troops there instead. He promised to close down Guantanamo but he has not closed down Guantanamo.

'It is quite easy to promise during election time but you know there are forces in the United States which prevent the president from doing some things. One of the forces is the Jewish lobby,' he said.