On April 8, an Arab League think tank - The Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow Up (ZCCF) - hosted a lecture titled "Who masterminded the attacks of September 11th?" The guest speaker, Theirry Meyssan, was described by the center as "the famous French author and writer." The event served partly to promote Meyssan's book, "The Appalling Fraud," in which he accuses the U.S. military of being behind September 11. The following are excerpts from the center’s summary of the lecture as well as from the Arab media's favorable coverage of the event:
The ZCCF Summary[1]
The Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow Up was established by the Arab League in 1999. Notable speakers at the center this year include former vice president Al Gore, former secretary of state James Baker, Professor Shebley Telhami of the University of Maryland and President George W. Bush's brother, Neil Bush. The center publishes summaries of its lectures.
The ZCCF's summary detailed Meyssan's argument as follows:
- Both Congress and the U.S. media covered up the truth by not investigating events.
- It was not reported that the White House's Old Executive Building was bombed, as was a third building in Manhattan.
- Bin Laden’s involvement: "this myth, also does not stand analysis," since he was a previous CIA agent who was visited by the head of the CIA in a Dubai hospital in July.
- The 1200 detainees held in the U.S. knew nothing of the attacks and their names are kept secret so that they cannot be charged.
- The American military – to further its interest and hegemony over the world - was responsible for the attacks.
- It is a possibility that the planes of September 11 were remote controlled. For two hours before the attack waves from a homing device were recorded transmitting from, and interfering with transmission from, the twin towers and such a device could be used to direct airplanes. If the planes were controlled by remote, no highjackers were needed, thus the passenger lists were fake.
Saudi Government Daily Reports the Event
On April 10th, the Saudi government daily The Saudi Gazette ran a story on the lecture titled "U.S. military officials behind 9/11 attacks – French Author." The article detailed Theirry Meyssan's proposal that a United Nations panel be established to find those really behind September 11 and until this happens, all American military operations, including any against Iran or Iraq should be considered illegal. The Saudi Gazette quoted Meyssan as stating the following: "...[T]hose who masterminded the operations and led them were American terrorists."
"The fact that [presidential] communication codes were decoded by the attackers proves that at least one of the masterminds of the attack was an American military official."
"...Commenting on the assumption that American military officials had planned the attacks, [Meyssan] said that such an assumption could be true as a similar thing happened in 1961 when the American command planned internal attacks against American citizens."
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Daily Reports the Event
On April 9, the UAE daily Khaleej Times, ran a story on the event authored by Mu'awiya Ibrahim, titled, "French author calls for probe into September 11 attacks."
Ibrahim quoted Meyssan's statement referring to the list of kidnappers shown in the airline documents, and said there were actually only three passengers identified in flight 11 and two in flight 93: "It is ridiculous enough to believe the story of the passport that was found in the debris of the World Trade Center amid such horrible fire and smoke."[2]
[1] www.zccf.org.ae/LECTURES/E2_lectures/e201.htm.
[2] For more on Arabic press reports of who is behind the September 11 attacks, see:
A. MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 270: .http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/515.htm
B. MEMRI Special Report No. 8: .http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/728.htm
