Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian journalist Diaa Rashwan, which aired on Al-Hayat TV on May 8, 2011.
To view reports from the MEMRI 9/11 Documentation Project, visit http://www.memri.org/subject/en/96.htm.
Interviewer: "I have a difficult question for you."
Diaa Rashwan: "Go ahead."
Interviewer: "Do you believe that what Osama bin Laden did served the interests of the Arabs, or harmed them? Did he serve Islam, or did he serve the Americans – their ideology, their expansion, and their exploitation of many things...
"Incidentally, I doubt that [Al-Qaeda] carried out the Twin Tower operation. Bin Laden did not appear in a single tape admitting that they carried it out. He said: 'We praise this operation, but we did not carry it out.' That was his first statement, right?"
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Diaa Rashwan: "Right."
Interviewer: "I have not seen a single tape since then, in which he admits that he carried out the Twin Tower operation. Is it true what American analysts are saying today – that the Americans devised this scenario and pinned it on bin Laden, who went along with them? There are many question marks, and I'd like to understand."
Diaa Rashwan: "Let me sum it up for you. Do you understand soccer?"
Interviewer: "A little."
Diaa Rashwan: "So do I. In soccer, you have a goal here and a goal there. A player kicks the ball, and it goes into the goal – but it was not his own kick that scored the goal. Other players continued the movement of the ball – but that player believes that it was he who scored the goal. Osama bin Laden kicked the ball, but he was not the one who scored the goal. He kicked the ball, he wanted to blow up [the Twin Towers], but the final kick..."
Interviewer: "He wanted to blow up the towers with those planes?"
Diaa Rashwan: "Yes. [...]
"The plan got underway, but how many people were involved in it? How many doors were opened for it? How come the U.S. airforce was in deep slumber? Where was the air control?"
Interviewer: "Is this conceivable, while the planes were crashing into the Twin Towers?"
Diaa Rashwan: "The bottom line is that ten years later, not a single investigation has been held by a regular court into this crime, in which 3,000 Americans died. [...]
"Look, I am convinced, based on my extensive study, that these bombings could not possibly have been carried out by Al-Qaeda alone. This is inconceivable!" [...]
