By Anna Varfolomeeva
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| Amadinejad |
BEIJING— (September 24— M4Relay) — The U.S. delegation walked out in protest during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech at the United Nations on September 23 – the Iranian leader in that speech suggested that the US government might have been behind the 9/11 terrorists attacks which claimed thousands of lives in 2001.
Ahmadinejad said there was a theory that “some segments within the US government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime.”
“The majority of the American people as well as other nations and politicians agree with this view,” he added.
Shortly, Mark Kornblau, spokesman of the U.S. Mission to the world body, issued a statement regarding Ahmadinejad’s words.
“Rather than representing the aspirations and goodwill of the Iranian people,” he said, “Mr. Ahmadinejad has yet again chosen to spout vile conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic slurs that are as abhorrent and delusional as they are predictable.”
Although Ahmadinejad’s speech was given a hostile reception, his views were not altogether new to many audiences across the globe.
The World Public Opinion, a project of research centers in various countries managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, polled 16,063 people in 17 nations outside of the United States during the summer of 2008. They found that only 9 of the 17 countries believed Al Qaeda carried out the attacks. 46 percent of those surveyed said al Qaeda was responsible, 15 percent said the U.S. government, while 7 percent said Israel, and another 7 percent said some other perpetrators were responsible for the attacks.
Zogby International in May 2006 conducted a poll, surveying adults from across the United States. The survey found that 42 percent of the people believed the US government and its 9/11 Commission concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence that contradicts their official explanation of the 9/11 attacks. 10 percent were not sure whether there was a cover up or not. 45 percent of people said there were many unanswered questions about 9/11, and that Congress or an International Tribunal should re-investigate the attacks, including whether any US government officials consciously allowed or helped facilitate their success. Eight percent were not sure about the answer.
The word “majority” used by Ahmadinejad was an exaggeration, but he was not that far from reality. From the data provided above it is clear that Ahmadinejad was not the first and the only one to question the origin of 9/11 attacks.
Ahmadinejad on nuclear weapons
The President of Iran said the criticism of his country comes “at the same time they [the U.S.] have continued to maintain, expand and upgrade their own nuclear arsenals.”
He said 2011 should be declared a year of nuclear disarmament – “Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapons for None”.
According to Reuters May 13, 2010 report, President Barack Obama sent a landmark arms-reduction treaty with Russia to the Senate for ratification and called for $80 billion in nuclear funding. The funding request was the largest since the Cold War.
In his speech, Ahmadinejad also covered some economic issues. “The discriminatory order of capitalism and the hegemonic approaches are facing defeat and are getting close to their end,” he said.
“The world is in need of an encompassing and, of course, just and humane order in the light of which the rights of all are preserved and peace and security are safeguarded,” he added.