LUIS E. SABINI FERNÁNDEZHow does the ADL confront “conspiratorial anti-Semitism”?

Luis E. Sabini Fernández, Revista Futuros, 28/11/2021
Translated by Fausto Giudice, Tlaxcala

In a recent paper, “Antisemitic Conspiracies About 9/11 Endure 20 Years Later,” the ADL (Anti-Defamation League, USA) comes out to confront what they advertise in the title.

Alleged anti-Semitic cartoons created by the ADL to illustrate its “report”

What does the reader expect when faced with such a title? The presentation of evidence or at least arguments showing the inconsistency of such attempts to explain what happened at the World Trade Center with the two towers.

It is an extensive work, more than 40 thousand spaces structured in four chapters, so there is no excuse for lack of means, space or similar.

However, except for the initial observation that such "anti-Semitic and conspiracy theories*" reject "the widely accepted version of the facts", what we have is a long list of characters thus qualified (anti-Semitic and conspiracy theorists) with their respective points in denunciation of the events of September 11, 2001, the collapse in Manhattan and so on and so forth.

First of all, it is worth making a demarcation: 'the widely quoted version of the facts' is no guarantee of truth or solvency; on the contrary, we would say that in the face of complex and intricate issues, the most widely quoted version does not necessarily have to be the most truthful; in particular, such an appeal does not guarantee anything, on the contrary.

The ADL refutes little or nothing of what it exposes of the respective "anti-Semitic and conspiratorial" referents. As if an ADL statement were self-evident.

For example, it qualifies Gilad Atzmon, who does not even support the aforementioned theses "because he lacks knowledge in construction and aviation", according to his own statements; likewise this author declares to adhere to the explanation of the attack so criticized by ADL; to see what happened as a conspiracy, because of, Atzmon clarifies: “1) the assiduity with which the Israeli Mossad engages in false flag operations; 2) by the principle of cui bono, which clearly shows us that Israel has been the main beneficiary of what happened and 3) that the Anglo-American empire has been in charge of armed conflicts generated by Zionism for at least the last two decades.”

ADL does not even attempt to comment on such juicy and truthful considerations. Moreover, we do not visualize Atzmon's approach as either anti-Semitic or conspiratorial, but very much in line with reality.

Let us take another example, not of someone accused of being “anti-Semitic and conspiratorial” (which they all are), but of an element, presumably proof of the strong Israeli involvement in the events in New York.

'The 5 dancing or partying Israelis'. ADL typifies as conspiratorial and anti-Semitic every time one of its challenged mentions the episode of five young people who were photographing and partying in an open garage, with the collapse of one of the towers as a backdrop. Seen, with bewilderment and indignation, from a neighboring house, they were reported to the police who promptly located and arrested them.

JORGE MAJFUDBy sea and by air, and nothing more20 years since the only 9/11 that matters

Jorge Majfud, 6/9/2021
Translated by Andy Barton, Tlaxcala

Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister, has gone and done it again. In a conference commemorating the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York in 2001, he insisted that “we need some ‘boots on the ground’” to fight against terrorism. Of course, this terrorism did not come out of nowhere; rather, it emerged from the historic interventions of the UK and USAmerica, and more recently, from the CIA’s funding of the Mujahadeen (which gave rise to Osama bin Laden and the founding members of the Taliban).

We will not go over those details now. However, this would be a good opportunity to remind the famous former prime minister of a few lessons from history. The same warning goes for Blair and all the other leaders who would qualify as war criminals were they not in charge of the world’s leading powers. London and Washington have only ever had a chance at success when unloading tonnes of bombs over “islands of Blacks” (as the beginning of the 20th century taught us); over “yellow villages” in the mid-20th century; over “communist hotbeds” decades after, and finally, over “caves of terrorists” at the beginning of the 21st century.

Eray Özbek, Turkey

When the British put boots on the ground in Argentina and Uruguay, things did not go well. They had better luck with their banks (generating internal conflicts with their fake news) than with their soldiers. Whenever they put boots on the ground, it did not at all go well. Neither did it go well for their proverbial sons and daughters, the protestant fanatics in Washington, although the latter always knew how to market themselves well, which is one thing they most certainly are: good salespeople.

PEPE ESCOBAR9/9 and 9/11, 20 years later

 Pepe Escobar, Asia Times, 9/9/2021

We may never know the full contours of the whole riddle inside an enigma when it comes to 9/11 and related issues 

It’s impossible not to start with the latest tremor in a series of stunning geopolitical earthquakes. 

Exactly 20 years after 9/11 and the subsequent onset of the Global War on Terror (GWOT), the Taliban will hold a ceremony in Kabul to celebrate their victory in that misguided Forever War.

Four key exponents of Eurasia integration – China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan – as well as Turkey and Qatar, will be officially represented, witnessing the official return of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. As blowbacks go, this one is nothing short of intergalactic.

The plot thickens when we have Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid firmly stressing “there is no proof” Osama bin Laden was involved in 9/11. So “there was no justification for war, it was an excuse for war,” he claimed. 

Only a few days after 9/11, Osama bin Laden, never publicity-shy, released a statement to Al Jazeera: “I would like to assure the world that I did not plan the recent attacks, which seems to have been planned by people for personal reasons (…) I have been living in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and following its leaders’ rules. The current leader does not allow me to exercise such operations.” 

On September 28, Osama bin Laden was interviewed by the Urdu newspaper Karachi Ummat. I remember it well, as I was commuting non-stop between Islamabad and Peshawar, and my colleague Saleem Shahzad, in Karachi, called it to my attention. 

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Arcadio Esquivel, Costa Rica