Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the attacks were a “complicated, designed game” to affect people’s emotions and pave way for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
He also said US launched those wars to solve its own economic problems. Ahmadinejad’s remarks appeared on Iranian state TV’s website on Sunday.
The Iranian leader has repeatedly questioned the official version of the events surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks, calling it a “big lie.”
A mother in Malaysia greeted her dead son. People in Manila left roses for the victim who helped give them homes. And mourners in Tokyo stood before a piece of steel from ground zero, remembering the 23 bank employees who never made it out alive.
A decade after 9/11, the day that changed so much for so many people, the world’s leaders and citizens paused to reflect Sunday. But there were also those — including the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed — who reiterated old claims that the US government itself was behind the attacks.
Mahathir said Arab Muslims are incapable of carrying out the 9/11 attacks. The aging firebrand, who was in power in Malaysia at the time of the attacks and stepped down in 2003 after 22 years in power, slammed former US President George W. Bush ahead of the anniversary on Sunday of 9/11.
“Bush lied about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction ... If they can lie so as to kill Iraqis, Afghans and American soldiers, it is not unthinkable for Bush & Co. to lie about who was responsible for 9/11,” the 86-year-old wrote in his blog Friday. Listing out reasons in line with a conspiracy theory that the US government was behind the attacks, he wrote the Twin Towers in New York “came down nicely upon themselves, and looked more like planned demolition of buildings than collapse.”
“I believe Arab Muslims are angry enough to sacrifice their lives and become suicide bombers. But they or their handlers do not strike me as capable of planning and strategizing such attacks so as to maximize the damage to the enemy,” he said.
Last year, he said if the US could make the 3D science fiction film Avatar, “they can make anything,” adding there was strong evidence that the 9/11 attacks were staged.
He has also condemned Bush and then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair as “child killers” and “war criminals,” saying they should be put on trial for the military invasion of Iraq.
Tears flowed and bells tolled at Ground Zero on Sunday as Americans marked the anniversary in a rare moment of unity.
President Barack Obama and his predecessor and political foe Bush stood together in New York for the main ceremony at the site of the destroyed Twin Towers.
Obama then flew to the crash site of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania, where he laid a wreath ahead of his next stop at the Pentagon.
At Ground Zero, the Stars and Stripes fluttered from cranes used in the massive project to rebuild the World Trade Center, while below relatives of 9/11’s 2,977 victims brushed fingertips across the names of their loved ones etched in bronze around a new memorial. With federal officials warning of a new terrorism scare, lower Manhattan was under police lockdown. Security in other major cities was also tight, as Obama called for a “heightened state of vigilance.”
The ceremony began in New York with a procession of bagpipers and singing of the national anthem, before a bell signaled the first of six moments of silence marking the times when the four hijacked airplanes hit their targets and the Twin Towers collapsed.
From Sydney to Spain, formal ceremonies paid tribute to the victims. And, in a reminder that threats remain, Swedish police said four people were arrested Sunday on suspicion of preparing a terror attack, as authorities in Washington and New York beefed up security in response to intelligence about possible plans for a car bomb attack.
Players from the American Eagles rugby team were among the first to mark the anniversary at a memorial service in the town of New Plymouth in New Zealand. The players, who are participating in the Rugby World Cup tournament, listened to a speech by US ambassador David Huebner, whose brother Rick survived the attacks on the World Trade Center.
In Pakistan, supporters of a radical political party staged anti-US protests to mark the anniversary, holding up banners that denounced the US. The protests by about 100 people were held in Islamabad and Multan city.
Pope Benedict XVI, at an outdoor Mass in Ancona, Italy, prayed for victims and urged the world to resist what he called the “temptation toward hatred” and instead work for solidarity, justice and peace.
