"The Jews Did It!"

By Nicholas Stix
September 23, 2001
A Different Drummer/Toogood Reports

[This is an early version of what would develop into the “Truther” hoax. Don’t miss the postscript.]
 

'The Jews did it!'

You read correctly. In the newest example of Arabprop, some pan-Arabist/jihadist propagandists are flooding the Internet with a bogus report, according to which THE ISRAELIS committed the September 11 attacks on America, in order to regain the sympathy of the American public:

* NEWS EMBARGO AFTER ISRAELI LINK LEAK *

Stern-Intel (Canada). A US military intelligence source revealed details of an internal intelligence memo that points to the Israeli Mossad intelligence service having links to the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. The intelligence source, who requested his name be withheld, confirmed the internal US intelligence memo circulated four weeks ago described information that pointed to the threat of a covert Israeli operation on US soil to turn mass public opinion against Palestinian Arabs via an apparent terrorist attack on US interests that would give Israel the green light to implement a large scale military onslaught against the Palestinian Arab population.

The 11 September attack has been described by experts as being too sophisticated for a lone terrorist group to execute. "This attack required a high level of military precision and the resources of an advanced intelligence agency. In addition, the attackers would have needed to be extremely familiar with both air force one flight operations, civil airline flight paths and aerial assault tactics on sensitive US cities like Washington, Stated David Stern an expert on Israeli intelligence operations. The attacks targeted the Pentagon, World Trade Center towers, with the white house and air force also being targets according to the FBI.

"The attacks have certainly turned US public opinion firmly back in Israel's favor after 11 months of Palestinian uprising, heavy criticism of Israel over war crimes allegations and racism by a UN conference in Durban. The attacks serve no Arab group or nation’s interests but their timing came in the midst of international condemnation of Israel for its policy of death squad assassination of Palestinian political and police figures," added Stern.

If verified, the news of Israel’s involvement in the US attack will come as no surprise to intelligence experts. The state of Israel has a long history of covert operations against Western targets with attacks on the King David Hotel, USS Liberty, murder of a Scandinavian UN envoy as well as espionage against the US during the Jonathan Pollard case.

On Wednesday the US defense department issued a warning to its officials to halt the leak of information on the investigation which it says is happening on a daily basis since the attacks occurred."

www.mediamonitors.net

The above-quoted "report" is a state-of-the-art version of the ancient blood libel against the Jews, which claimed that Jews murdered Christian children, and used their blood in the baking of Passover matzos. Last year's version claimed that Israelis were engaging in genocide, through poisoning "Palestinians'" water supply, and using "depleted uranium."

I first encountered the bogus report posted at Jim Robinson's conservative, Free Republic media web site. I quickly copied the thread, since I know [sic] it wouldn't last. Robinson, who has a short fuse in dealing with neo-Nazis, more sophisticated white nationalists, and America-bashers alike, almost immediately deleted the post and its poster, "TruthBites," who claimed to be from the web site, Media Monitors Network.

I e-mailed the post to Muhammad Ali Khan, the founder and editor of Media Monitors, asking him if he would like to respond, but he never replied.

I couldn't find the report at Media Monitors' web site, which is a collection of anti-Semitic/anti-Israeli rants by the likes of PLO spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi, the occasional civilian, and "humanitarian" op-eds by the likes of racial-socialist, University of Texas/Austin journalism professor, Robert Jensen.

Continuing my search, I found the "report" presented as "news/reportage," at the jihadist web site, Khilafah, under the title, "Israeli Mossad Links To World Trade Center Attack." Khilafah proclaims,

"Islam is the efficient cure for the world from the horrible disease of Capitalism

ABIDING BY THE RULES OF SHARI’AH WILL ACHIEVE THE DOMINATION OF THESHARI [SIC]’AH RULES"

A Web search for "David Stern Intel" and "Stern-Intel," turned up only a computer expert, who responded that, "I am not a reporter and have no knowledge of this 'military intelligence' article."

I called the Israelis, for their take on this new, blood libel. Ido Aaroni [sic; Aharoni], the director of the Department of Media Affairs at the Israeli Consulate in New York, was unaware of this newest hoax, but unimpressed. "No, I am not familiar with that." And what of Daniel Stern, of "Stern-Intel"? "I never heard of the guy.... Since the violence broke out in the territories, the Palestinians have accused us of a number of things. They have accused us of using depleted uranium. It's so ridiculous, there's no point even responding."
 

Postscript, September 12, 2011: Cyber sleuth Richard Shand, who contacted me at the time, was able to trace the origins of “the article to an e-mail sent to six Islamic news services on September 13, 2001,” but was unable to go further back, in order to determine the hoaxer’s identity.