Nine years after September 11

We have commemorated the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, which served as pretext for a war which was meant to last forever. After killing nearly three thousand people in the U.S., the organizers of the attacks caused the death of more than one million people in Afghanistan and Iraq. They planned to extend the carnage to Syria and Iran, but have failed -for the time being- to implement that stage of the plan.

On the occasion of this sad anniversary, those who shifted the blame for their own crimes on the Islamists before ravaging the Muslim Middle East, have come up with a new stage production. A fake debate about the construction of a Muslim center in Manhattan has been shaking the United States, while another one has been sparked by the cries to burn the Koran.

In the end, the U.S. authorities will not fail to proclaim that they intervened to guarantee freedom of religion in their own country, expecting us to forget that the massive crimes committed by them in the Middle East were perpetrated in the spirit of a new crusade against Islam.

They want to dull our awareness of their failure to convince us. Nine years ago, I stood alone to refute the lies of September 11, to denounce the coup d’état at the hands of the industrial-military complex, and to warn against the bellicose projects of the new Empire. In spite of the insults, the threats and the attacks, I traveled the world over sensitizing international public opinion and exposing the ideology behind the "clash of civilizations".

I was prevented from pursuing this objective in the United States, where I was declared persona non grata. However, after assimilating the blow and accepting my grief, brave U.S. citizens have raised the banner of truth in their own country. Polls indicate that each year 10% more Americans join the ranks of those who challenge the official version adopted by the Kean-Hamilton Commission. Currently over 70%, including Mr. Kean and Hamilton – who were in charge of imposing the definitive government’s version - are openly skeptical. At this rate, within three years the entire U.S. population will reject the official version.

Today, a majority of people throughout the world demands that light be shed on these crimes. Having used September 11 to justify their invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq before the United Nations, the United States and the United Kingdom have put the issue squarely in the international arena. The time has come for the UN General Assembly to set up an investigative committee to compile the evidence already in the public domain, and prepare an indictment against the real suspects.

Whether our loved ones were killed in the ruins of the World Trade Center or in the rubble of the bombed houses in Kabul and Baghdad, whether our children were killed by the occupants or died occupying the Middle East, we are the victims of the same system. We must fight together to estabish the whole truth and to hold the culprits accountable, because peace cannot be achieved without justice.