Zawahiri: Iran's Blowing Smoke About Who Did 9/11

Terrorists arguing with rival terror masters whose conspiracy theorizing rivals that of the Troofer movement. Welcome to the wonderful world of jihad in the 21st century.

Osama bin Laden's chief deputy on Tuesday denied a theory that Israel carried out the Sept. 11 attacks and blamed Iran and Shiite Hezbollah for spreading the idea to discredit the Sunni al-Qaida's strike against the U.S.

The comments in a recording posted on an Islamic Web site reflected the increasing criticism by al-Qaida's No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri against Iran. Al-Zawahri has accused Iran in recent messages of seeking to extend its power in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and through its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon.

The authenticity of the two-hour audio recording could not be independently confirmed. But the voice sounded like past audiotapes from the terror leader, and the posting where it was found bore the logo of Al-Sahab, al-Qaida's official media arm.

It was the second of two messages answering questions that were posted to Islamic militant Web sites earlier this year.

One of the questioners asked about the theory that has circulated in the Middle East and elsewhere that Israel was behind the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Al-Zawahri accused Hezbollah's Al-Manar television of starting the rumor.

So, it's Hizbullah's fault that we've got conspiracy theories about who was behind 9/11? Sorry, but I'm not buying that either. After all, we've got a whole bunch of loony leftists here in the US that think that the Bush Administration was behind the attacks, and you've got French "film makers" who claim to have proof that the US attacked its own buildings and killed thousands of its own people on 9/11. A whole cottage industry has been spawned in the US where people believe that the US government was behind the attacks.