Here are excerpts from a speech on Kuwait’s Al-Risala TV by Dr. Sallah Sultan, president of the American Center for Islamic Research in Columbus, Ohio, who tells the Arab audience that America planned the 9/11 attacks in order to control and terrorize the entire world. And it was all based on a Denzel Washington movie. (Courtesy MEMRI TV.)

Sallah Sultan: The film “The Siege,” starring Denzel Washington, portrayed the Muslims in a very bad light. They are shown calling for prayer, performing the ablution, praying, and then planning multiple bombings - a government building, a security agency, the FBI, a bus carrying young men and women, adults and children. They bombed shops.

The film came out in April 1999. It paved the way for 9/11, since it was filmed in Brooklyn, New York. The truth is that immediately after 9/11, I said people should view these events in the context of “The Siege,” because these events were identical.

This scenario... I still believe to this day... The scenario still baffles me. I share the view of many Americans, French, and Europeans, who say that 9/11 could not have been carried out entirely from outside [the U.S.] - by Muslims or others. The confessions of some people could have been edited. But even if they were not edited, I believe that these people were used in a marginal role. The entire thing was of a large scale and was planned within the U.S., in order to enable the U.S. to control and terrorize the entire world, and to get American society to agree to the war declared on terrorism, the definition of which has not yet been determined.

The U.S. remains the only country to determine who is a terrorist, and what is the definition for terrorism, and it can pin it on anyone. The most recent instance is the case of Dr. Al-Zindani, who has been accused of terrorism, even though he is known worldwide for his refinement, virtue, and broad horizons.

UPDATE at 5/21/06 10:17:35 pm:

The “Dr. Al-Zindani” to whom he refers is Sheikh Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, a Yemeni mentor of Osama bin Laden who preaches jihad and hatred at Iman University in Sanaa: Yemeni Sheikh of Hate.

Once again, we see that in Yemen, as throughout the rest of the world, extremism rarely exists in a vacuum. Radicalism and hatred need to be implanted, incubated, and cultivated, much in the same way that any political or social movement requires a broad base of financial and ideological support. In the case of the two Yemenis who committed these recent atrocities, they relied spiritually, if not logistically, on Sheikh Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, a prominent radical Yemeni sheikh who has served as a mentor to Osama bin Laden and worked very closely with a Saudi governmental charity.

Often, in the world of jihadism, we find that behind every attack is an individual who sanctions, exhorts, and approbates terrorist activities, all the while never actually taking part in a physical aspect of the operation. For example, Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, “the Blind Sheikh,” issued the fatwah calling for the destruction of several New York landmarks. His followers attempted to carry out the attacks, solely based on Rahman’s instructions and religious justifications, though luckily they were caught before they could do any damage. Rahman is now serving a life sentence for his role in the attacks.

Zindani, a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan war, is no different than the Blind Sheikh. He leads the Iman University in Sanaa, a powder keg of radical ideology and activity. There, he sermonizes to malleable youths, convinces them to hate the West, and justifies terrorist attacks. Zindani has released cassette tapes of his rhetoric, in which he maintains that President Bush and Jews conspired together to create September 11. As a result of Zindani’s leadership, the university has trained several religious extremists to the point of militantism; the terrorists involved in Yemen’s recent attacks attended the school. Perhaps Iman University’s most famous alumnus is John Walker Lindh, who studied there extensively and arduously before heading to Afghanistan and joining the Taliban.