Antisemitic Conspiracies About 9/11 Endure 20 Years Later

In the days following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America, conspiracy theorists across the ideological spectrum dismissed the widely accepted version of events and instead crafted alternative narratives about the perpetrators, their motive, and other details about the attacks. Some of these conspiratorial claims directly implicated Jewish people and Israel in the attacks, in a continuation of centuries-old antisemitic tropes about Jews supposedly manipulating world events for their own benefit. 

Two decades later, antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories continue to thrive. Although many of the original conspiracy theorists from 20 years ago remain active, a new generation of antisemites has joined them. This report highlights some of these themes and the many individuals who, despite their often-disparate ideologies, are united in their belief that Jews or Israel played a role in the 9/11 attacks.

A Web of Conspiratorial Beliefs

For twenty years, 9/11 conspiracy theories have served as a paradigm for conspiratorial takes on other tragedies and events. No mass shooting, natural disaster, disease outbreak, election or geopolitical incident occurs without a cadre of conspiracy theorists claiming that mainstream and scientific explanations for the events are “impossible.”

Conspiratorial “truther” subcultures, fueled by the internet and social media, wildly speculate about “false flags,” embark on amateur efforts to uncover “who benefits” and make allegations about national or international plots and coverups. Grifters, attention seekers and trolls present themselves as “experts,” and dramatically oversimplify complex phenomena for a global network of followers.  

Unfortunately, the antisemitism that ADL has documented for the past twenty years regarding 9/11 conspiracy theories can also be found in many of these other “truther” communities. Antisemites attribute mass shootings in the U.S., including Sandy Hook and El Paso, as well as the Charlie Hebdo attack in France, to the machinations of Jews or Zionists. Some conspiracy theorists draw direct lines between alleged Jewish responsibility for the 9/11 attacks and the 2008 financial crisis. There has been an outpouring of antisemitic conspiracy theories regarding the involvement of Jews and Israel in the Covid-19 pandemic and in the development of vaccines. Jews and Zionists have also been blamed for the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.  

We know that conspiracy theories can motivate real-world behavior, including acts of extremism and violence. Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers was inspired to attack the Tree of Life synagogue because he believed in conspiracy theories regarding the involvement of Jewish people in mass immigration, and likewise, many participants in the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th were fueled by conspiracy theories.

ADL published its first major report on antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories in 2003. ADL’s subsequent reports in 2006, 2011, and 2016 further demonstrate the evolution of so-called “9/11 truther” activities and claims over the past 20 years. Many of the elements of 9/11 conspiracy theories that were previously highlighted continue to feature in discourse on the subject today.

Popular themes in antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories:

• The Mossad was behind the attacks. Variations of this theory have circulated since 2001 and assert that the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, was behind the 9/11 attacks. The most common “proof” cited is the false claim that five Israeli Mossad agents were arrested on 9/11 by police who observed them filming and celebrating the attack. This narrative of the “dancing Israelis” is a recurring element of many conspiracy theories.
• Jewish neoconservatives were behind the attacks. Proponents of this theory claim that the leaders of the influential neoconservative political ideology in the United States, many of whom were Jewish, plotted with members of the Bush Administration and enlisted the help of the Mossad to implement the attacks in order to benefit Israel. This theory alleges that supporters of Israel hatched the plan well before 9/11, with the goal of invading Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries to allow the U.S. and Israel to seize control of resources and power in that area.
• The Jewish-controlled media and government manipulated narratives about the attacks and worked to prevent the truth from emerging. Conspiracy theorists claim that the “truth” about Israeli and Jewish involvement in the 9/11 attacks has been suppressed because Jews control the media and government, including the 9/11 Commission tasked with investigating and reporting on the attack. They further claim that “powerful” Jews intentionally manipulated the narrative of the events to place blame on Muslim individuals and nations and to deceive the American public.
• Jews or Israelis had foreknowledge of the attacks and chose not to inform the U.S. government. One of the most common antisemitic myths about 9/11 states that 4,000 Jews who worked in the World Trade Center were informed by Israeli intelligence agencies to stay home from work on that tragic day.
• Zionists exploited the 9/11 attacks to expand surveillance of American citizens. Conspiracy theorists who promote this claim allege that Zionists used the attacks to create conditions in the U.S. in which privacy could be revoked and a restrictive police surveillance state could be implemented in the name of national security. Some specifically claim that these actions were inspired by supposed Israeli treatment of Palestinians.
• The technical details of the attacks do not add up; therefore, the entire historical narrative must be fraudulent. A fundamental component of 9/11 conspiracy theories promoted by antisemites and non-antisemites alike claims that the technical details of the “official” story are not supported by scientific or documented evidence. Antisemitic proponents of this conspiracy theory claim that, if the official narrative was indeed fabricated and 9/11 was a false flag event, then either Jews or Israel are inevitably the most likely culprits. Some offer alternative explanations as to how the attacks were supposedly executed—such as claiming that explosives rather than planes and fires brought down the towers—while others admit that they do not know what really happened, just that Jews or Israel are to blame.
• “Jewish Ownership” of the World Trade Center. Conspiracists focused on what the “Jewish owners” of the World Trade Center stood to gain from its destruction. According to this theory, Jewish businessmen—most notably Larry Silverstein, whose company had recently taken out a lease on the World Trade Center complex—plotted to destroy the towers in an effort to obtain millions of dollars in insurance money. The implication is that their inside knowledge of the complex allowed them to help the Mossad execute the plan. This conspiracy theory incorporates the antisemitic trope of “Jewish lightning” and goes to the heart of the myth of the greedy Jew.

Within days of the 9/11 attacks, antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories began appearing in the United States and abroad. In the Middle East, Al-Manar, a Lebanese television station linked to Hezbollah, was one of the main sources for the false claim that 4,000 Israelis had been told to stay home on the day of the terrorist attacks. In the United States, publications on the extreme right, particularly the American Free Press (AFP), an antisemitic conspiracy-oriented newspaper, also played a big role in promoting a variety of anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories.

By the 10th anniversary of the attacks, a network of anti-Israel conspiracists who blamed Israel for numerous nefarious deeds and false flag operations had become increasingly influential in the 9/11 truth movement. These individuals became the most popular promoters of theories claiming that Israelis and Jewish members of the Bush Administration carried out the 9/11 attacks as a false flag operation to provoke a war against Israel’s enemies. Articles painting Israel or the “Israel lobby” as devious and complicit in mass murder to further Jewish goals of acquiring power and destroying enemies were widely circulated, picked up by the conspiracy press, the extreme right press, and elsewhere, including Islamic media sources in the United States.

Some of the key figures in these earlier groups of conspiracists continue to produce new content and be widely cited. Christopher Bollyn, one of the earliest promoters of antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories, maintains a prominent role in the larger movement and has promoted his views on platforms provided by such antisemites as the Nation of Islam and Adam Green in recent years. Over a decade after Ryan Dawson released his popular 2008 documentary promoting antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories, he also continues to engage in the movement and collaborate with a new generation of conspiracists, including white supremacist Vincent James of The Red Elephants and QAnon proponent Robert David Steele.

Gordon Duff and Kevin Barrett, who were both profiled in ADL’s 2011 report as members of the new group of prominent conspiracists blaming Israel for the attacks, also maintain a broad influence. Duff’s website, Veterans Today, continues to provide a platform for numerous columnists to promote 9/11 conspiracy theories, Holocaust denial, and other antisemitic content. Barrett disseminates antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories as a frequent guest on Iran’s Press TV, hosts a wide array of antisemites on his internet radio show, and is a regular contributor to Veterans Today and the Unz Review.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups were quick to accept and promulgate antisemitic conspiracy theories to explain the attacks because these theories confirmed their already established belief in the inherent evil of Jews. They also wanted to exploit the theories to gain the support of a suspicious and frightened American public looking for answers to the 9/11 tragedy. Groups like the National Alliance, the Creativity Movement, and Aryan Nations wanted to engender anti-Jewish sentiment to strengthen their membership, galvanize potential recruits to take action, and convince the American public that hatred of Jews was justified. The groups used a number of tactics to publicize the Jews’ or Israel’s alleged responsibility for the attacks, including holding demonstrations outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., and distributing fliers that promoted similar antisemitic, anti-Israel messages about 9/11.

Two decades later, a new generation of white supremacists continue to use 9/11 conspiracy theories to spread propaganda about Jewish people and bolster recruitment efforts. These individuals and groups view 9/11 conspiracy theories as a tool with which to “redpill” people—in other words, something that will serve as an entryway into antisemitism and cause people to question their beliefs about Jews and society more broadly. The Nationalist Social Club (NSC), for example, a neo-Nazi group, has spray-painted graffiti on multiple occasions in the past two years which features the Star of David and the message: “Mossad did 9/11! Google ‘Dancing Israelis.’”

^{An image shared by Nationalist Social Club on Telegram, documenting one of their propaganda efforts in 2020.}

The Goyim Defense League (GDL), a network of white supremacists and antisemitic provocateurs which has gained traction in recent years, distributes propaganda listing alleged “facts” about Jewish involvement in 9/11, with the message that “this is just the tip of the iceberg. Do your research! Wake up” and a link to their website. GDL leader Jon Minadeo has spoken about how watching a 9/11 conspiracy theory documentary was part of his own antisemitic “awakening” and realization that “it’s always Jews behind evil.” Minadeo in turn has used 9/11 to try to “redpill” unsuspecting young people on Omegle—an online platform which randomly pairs anonymous users for one-on-one video chats—by introducing them to extremist beliefs during the sessions.

Memes are also widely used by the current generation of white supremacists as an online propaganda tool to promote antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories. The prevalence of this content is especially notable on Telegram, a popular social media platform frequented by white supremacists and other far right extremists. These memes sometimes incorporate other antisemitic conspiracy theories or imagery, such as the echo symbol.

^{A myriad of Telegram channels hosted by white supremacists and dedicated to sharing white supremacist content shared this image in 2021.}

The early months and years after the attacks saw the emergence of a cottage industry that produced books, tracts, and websites blaming Jews for 9/11. Antisemites exploited longstanding tropes to blame Jews and Israel for the attacks, which in a circular fashion further justified their antisemitic beliefs about Jews as inherently evil and manipulative. The internet helped facilitate an unprecedented cross-fertilization of antisemitic ideas across ideological and geographic boundaries. Even 9/11 conspiracy theorists who do not directly blame Jews for the attacks have sometimes collaborated with or been inspired by antisemitic conspiracy theorists.

Though the primary spaces in which 9/11 conspiracy theories proliferate may have shifted over the years to video-hosting sites and social media platforms, the exchange of ideas by antisemitic conspiracy theorists continues. As ADL’s 2003 report predicted, allegations of Jewish or Israeli responsibility for 9/11 have become an antisemitic canard that continues to be used to demonize Jewish people and Israel.           

           

The following is a sampling of some of the numerous individuals who promote antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories today, including individuals who have maintained a prominent role in the 9/11 truther movement for the past two decades, as well as a new generation of individuals carrying on that legacy. These individuals cut across the ideological spectrum—from longtime conspiracy theorists and hardcore antisemites, to white supremacists and Black nationalists—united in their belief that Jews and Israel are to blame for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Abdelmalek al-Houthi

The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who refer to themselves as “Ansar Allah,” adhere to a fundamentally antisemitic worldview which dates back to the group’s foundational documents from the early 2000s. Hussein al-Houthi, the group’s founder, claimed in sermons in December 2001 that 9/11 was a Jewish conspiracy and that Osama bin Laden was probably hiding in an American hotel. Under its current leader, Hussein’s brother Abdelmalek al-Houthi, the Houthi insurgency continues to routinely propagate antisemitic conspiracy theories about 9/11, even teaching such hatred to children under their control. Since conquering the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in 2014, the Houthis now also control the institutions of a contender Yemeni state. As a result, antisemitic conspiracy theories, including about 9/11, are now amplified by previously official Yemeni institutions that belonged to the state and were seized by Abdelmalek al-Houthi and his organization, such as the state’s al-Eman TV station. 

• In 2021, the Houthi-controlled al-Eman TV station broadcast a show that taught school children “the scam of 9/11 was a theatrical show produced by the Jews and the Americans” to conquer all Islamic and Arab nations.
• In a 2021 speech about the importance and origins of the Houthi slogan “death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews,” Abdelmalek al-Houthi suggested that the U.S. and Israel “made the events of September 11th as a pretext” to conquer the Muslim world.
• In 2016 speech about “the Jewish enemy,” Abdelmalek al-Houthi declared with regard to “the Jewish Zionist lobby” that “we find in the events of September 11th with certainty they manufactured this event, and employed it to the highest level.”

Adam Green

Antisemitic conspiracy theorist Adam Green hosts an online streaming show called “Know More News.” Green promotes various conspiracy theories on the show, often connecting them to ancient Jewish texts and a belief that Jews are attempting to control world governments and industries to ultimately destroy non-Jews. Green speculated that the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, for example, was orchestrated by Israel and Jews in order to justify implementing tyrannical laws to undermine the United States. Green has promoted antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories, including conducting “9/11 Truth Street Interviews,” participating in 9/11 truther events, and hosting other antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theorists on Know More News.

• “It wasn’t until like 2008, 2009, I started to get into the 9/11 truth stuff. And ever since I learned this, my life has been changed. I don’t think there’s been a day that goes by that it doesn’t replay in my head that [Zionists] can blow up buildings in front of everybody and start wars…They’re getting away with everything…They take down a couple buildings to justify Israel’s dominance in the world and to help fulfill their prophecies. 9/11 was huge for them…” – Adam Green, Know More News, September 2019
• “Greater Israel, world domination, Temple Mashiach, all the end times prophecy. [Zionists] needed 9/11 for that. It took out all their threats in the Middle East, it launched a war on Islam, destabilized all of their neighbors, all of it.” – Adam Green, Know More News, September 2019

Andrew Anglin and The Daily Stormer 

Andrew Anglin is a white supremacist and antisemite who operates the neo-Nazi website, The Daily Stormer. Anglin got his start in the alt right extremist world as a 9/11 “truther” and was influenced by conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones of InfoWars. He launched The Daily Stormer in 2013, which features content from Anglin and other authors that is explicitly racist, antisemitic, misogynistic, anti-LGBTQ+, and peddles conspiratorial claims related to the 2020 election, the coronavirus pandemic, and other current events. In 2014, Anglin stated definitively on The Daily Stormer that “The Jews most definitely orchestrated the events of September 11th, 2001.” Anglin remains in hiding after several judges awarded punitive damages to victims of his various trolling campaigns.

• “I’ve been thinking about this Iraq War thing recently. It is actually as totally insane as the coronavirus hoax or the global weather hoax. It is totally mind-blowing, looking back, that half of America believed that Saddam Hussein had ordered 911. As we know, virtually all of the neocons were Jews. Not 60% or 70%, but 95%.” – Andrew Anglin, The Daily Stormer, July 2021
• “There is simply no denying the Jewish and Israeli involvement in the 9/11 attacks. The fact that Jews were complicit in these attacks is a very legitimate reason to hate the Jews.” – Lee Rogers, The Daily Stormer, July 2019

Christopher Bollyn

Christopher Bollyn was one of the earliest promoters of antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories and he continues to be an influential voice in the 9/11 truther movement two decades later. He first began writing about the attacks soon after they occurred as a reporter for American Free Press, an antisemitic conspiracy-oriented newspaper. Since that time, Bollyn has doubled down on his arguments and promoted the view that the 9/11 attacks were a false flag operation by Israel and Jews which led to the “War on Terror.” He has also described 9/11 as the “monstrous Jewish-Zionist crime of our time.” He conducted a speaking tour across the U.S. in 2016 to promote these conspiratorial claims. Bollyn continues to publish content about 9/11 on his own website and other platforms.

• “The 9-11 culprits who give the diktats to our political leaders apparently demand two things: utter silence on 9-11 truth and complete servitude to the Zionist agenda. Evidently, these are two sides of the same coin. Don’t expect the Zionist gangsters to give up and let us have our republic back anytime soon. They intend to maintain control of the White House and Congress for a long time, which is how they have enslaved us.” – Christopher Bollyn, August 2019
• “[Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] is one of the key masterminds of the fraudulent War on Terror, which is now the longest and most expensive war in U.S. history. He is also deeply involved in the false-flag terrorism of 9/11, which is the event that made his pet project, the War on Terror, become operational.” – Christopher Bollyn, July 2019

Cynthia McKinney

Former U.S. Representative (Georgia) and 2008 Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney has a long history of espousing anti-Israel and anti-Zionist rhetoric and has also supported antisemitic groups, including the Nation of Islam and the New Black Panther Party. McKinney began using conspiratorial rhetoric about 9/11 within months of the attacks and has continued to do so over the past two decades.

McKinney has participated in 9/11 truther events and has repeatedly blamed Israel and Zionists for the attacks. At the “9/11 Revisited – Seeking the Truth” conference in Kuala Lumpur in 2012, she claimed the “pro-Israel lobby” targeted her because of her questioning of 9/11. At a ReThink911 Coalition event in Times Square in 2013, hosted by 9/11 conspiracy theorist Richard Gage and his Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth (AE911Truth) organization, McKinney implied that Israel was behind the attacks, referencing the Israeli policy document “Clean Break” and the “Yinon Plan” during her speech. 

• McKinney posted an image on Twitter in June 2021 depicting the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers as a puzzle, with the message: “The final piece of the puzzle…Zionists did it.”
   
  

David Duke

Former Klan leader and one of America’s best-known white supremacists and antisemites, David Duke has spread antisemitic, racist, and bigoted commentary and conspiracy theories for decades, including through his newsletter, website and daily podcast. Duke has consistently accused Jews of controlling the media, U.S. politics, banking and other entities, in addition to repeating baseless claims that Jews are responsible for such events as the coronavirus pandemic and global wars. Duke has blamed Jews and Israel for the 9/11 terrorist attacks for the past 20 years, with his commentary appearing in such publications as Press TV, Iran’s English-language propaganda news network.

• “The Taliban is not our enemy. They did not do 9/11. If you want to know who did 9/11…it was the Jewish control of this country [the U.S.]…The Jewish supremacists are the biggest murderers in the history of the planet…Israel’s fingerprints all over 9/11…The Jewish power structure globally, the Jewish spy system and Mossad, has infiltrated every major terrorist group…There’s huge evidence that the Israeli state knew all about it. I think they planned it.” – David Duke, David Duke Radio Show, August 2021

David Icke

David Icke is a popular British conspiracy theorist and author whose books promote a wide range of conspiracy theories. These conspiracy theories include frequent antisemitism, such as claiming that Israel and Zionists planned the 9/11 terrorist attacks, citing the classic antisemitic text “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,” and stating that the Jewish Rothschild family is part of a bloodline of reptilian humanoids that secretly control the world.

Icke’s work has been admired by individuals across the political spectrum, from individuals on the left to far-right extremists. Icke’s two most recently published books, “The Trigger” in 2019 and “The Answer” in 2020, strongly promote the belief that a cabal of “ultra-Zionists” based in Israel, together with a religious “death cult” that emerged from Judaism centuries ago, perpetrated 9/11.

• “There was massive and central involvement in 9/11 by Israeli government, military and intelligence operatives…” – David Icke, “The Trigger,” 2019
• “Zionist and ultra-Zionist organisations form a network across America and the world to manipulate and impose the will of ultra-Zionism and the Sabbatian-Frankist Death Cult….Add the Kosher Nostra networks of organized crime which interlock with Mossad….add control of so much of government and media—and you have a hidden stream of interconnections perfectly capable of perpetrating and then covering up 9/11.” – David Icke, “The Trigger,” 2019

Ebrahim Raisi and Ali Khamenei

Antisemitic conspiracy theories about 9/11 are a mainstay of the Iranian government’s domestic and external propaganda and media channels. As the Supreme Leader and President of Iran respectively, Ali Khamenei and Ebrahim Raisi bear responsibility for an extensive network of institutions that propagate antisemitic propaganda both in Iran and abroad, including antisemitic conspiracy theories about 9/11.  These slanders emanate both from their personal patronage networks as well as official state media.

• “Islamophobia in the contemporary world under the cover of freedom of expression is the strategy of the Zionist clubs and the leaders of domination….[including through] the attribution of some fabricated events such as September 11 to Muslims.” – Ali Khamenei, personal website posting, September 2020
• In 2018, a charity directed by Raisi produced a 50-part film series to promote the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious antisemitic forgery. Episode 19 of this film series asserted 9/11 was part of a devil-worshipping plot by world Jewry and that “no Jews were present in the twin towers during the 11 September 2001 incident.”

Gilad Atzmon

Gilad Atzmon is an antisemitic author and musician who describes himself as an “ex-Israeli” and an “ex-Jew.” He is an outspoken promoter of classic antisemitic conspiracy theories and a fierce critic of the State of Israel. Atzmon has also made statements which trivialize or distort the Holocaust. Atzmon’s works seems to appeal to many fringe audiences including Black nationalists, white supremacists, and Holocaust deniers. In September 2014, for example, he was interviewed on a Nation of Islam program, and his works have also been cited by former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.

Though Atzmon has declined to directly endorse conspiracy theories about the technical details of 9/11, he portrays the 9/11 truth movement as working against powerful and deceitful Jewish interests which control historical narratives. In 2010, Atzmon spoke at a conference on 9/11 in London which catered to the UK truther group London Truth Movement; the event also featured antisemitic conspiracy theorist Kevin Barrett. At the conference, Atzmon said, “If we look into the past, we may be able to amend our future...This is what we call revisionism…This means World War II and the so-called Holocaust. This means 9/11.”

• “Although I frequently talk to 9/11 truth groups about various related topics such as Israel, Zionism and Jewish ID politics, I do not contribute to the discourse involving controlled demolitions and airplanes flying into buildings. Engineering, construction and flying are not within my field of research…However, there are a few areas of my study that I think are important in relation to the 9/11 truth movement: 1. The Mossad’s motto is ‘by way of deception’ and false flag operations are deeply rooted in the Mossad’s modus operandi. 2. The prime beneficiary of 9/11 has been Israel. It was Zio-cons who pushed for the so-called ‘war against terror.’ In the name of democracy and Coca Cola the English-speaking empire has been fighting Zionist conflicts for almost two decades. 3. Most important, be aware that controlling the opposition is at the core of Zionist survival strategy.” – Gilad Atzmon, January 2018

Gordon Duff and Veterans Today

Gordon Duff is an antisemitic conspiracy theorist who has been a significant figure in the 9/11 truther movement for the past decade. Duff runs the antisemitic, conspiracy-oriented news website Veterans Today, which he uses to disseminate content and provide a platform for numerous columnists to promote antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories. Duff asserts that Israel was responsible for the 9/11 attacks and further claims that U.S. security is threatened by a nefarious, disloyal group of Americans who have dual U.S./Israeli citizenship and who control government organizations and private companies. Duff’s work has been widely disseminated on conspiracy-oriented and right-wing extremist websites.

• “Israel began a massive destabilization effort against the U.S., funded by powerful financial interests, initially in order to access nuclear material to secure and expand its threatened nuclear arsenal. This destabilization effort included planning and execution of 9/11....” – Gordon Duff, Veterans Today, August 2021
• “The neocon’s and their KN [Kosher Nostra] bosses rigged the 2000 election, usurping power using the mob owned Supreme Court. Then they unleashed 9/11 using nuclear weapons deployed by Israeli and Saudi teams.” – Gordon Duff, Veterans Today, August 2021
• “The biggest story of the last 20 years is one of the brazen uses of nuclear weapons by Israel against its perceived enemies. Israel nuked the US on 9/11 and [Veterans Today] has proven it beyond a doubt.” – Gordon Duff, Veterans Today, August 2021

Goyim Defense League

The Goyim Defense League (GDL) is a loose network of antisemites and white supremacists who are motivated and united by their virulent hatred of Jews. GDL’s overarching goal is to cast aspersions on Jews and spread antisemitic myths and conspiracy theories. This includes frequent references to Jews having undue power through their “control” of major institutions such as media networks, the economy or the government, or disparaging Jews as degenerates who molest children and advocate for pornography, abortion, and homosexuality.

GDL’s promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories includes Holocaust denial and claims that Jews were responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. GDL routinely disseminates these claims online, in their propaganda, and during their “Name the Nose” tours. During one such tour in California in August 2020, GDL leader Jon Minadeo stood on the steps of a Chabad Jewish Community Center and proclaimed that “these Jewish terrorists are the people who were behind 9/11…These are the terrorists! It’s not the Muslims, it’s the Jews.”

• Antisemitic 9/11 imagery and text painted on the van used by the GDL during their “Name the Nose” tour in Florida in August 2021

• Propaganda distributed by GDL claiming that “Israel did 9-11.”

• Graphic shared in the GDL Chat on Telegram, which features Larry Silverstein and the message: “Jews did 9/11”

 

Kevin Barrett

Antisemitic conspiracy theorist Kevin Barrett is a frequent contributor to Iran’s English-language propaganda news network, Press TV, hosts an array of antisemites and Holocaust deniers on his “Truth Jihad” internet radio show and writes for Veterans Today and the Unz Review. Barrett frequently invokes antisemitic conspiracy theories about supposed Jewish manipulation of world events, claiming that the West does not comprehend Israel’s duplicity because of “the extent of clandestine Zionist power.” He is a longtime 9/11 conspiracy theorist, claiming that Zionists perpetrated the attacks to seize power in the United States provoke a “war on Islam on behalf of Israel.”

• “The granddaddy of all false flags, the September 11, 2001 coup d'etat, which was a neoconservative Zionist coup d'etat orchestrated to hijack American policy and use the American military to destroy the countries around Israel in that region, in order to enable Israeli expansionism and create a whole new world in the Middle East.” – Kevin Barrett, Interview on Press TV, September 2019
• “That effort to install a permanent and ever-expanding so-called Jewish state in the heart of the land that’s holy…is not a sustainable project. And so they had to resort to the most extreme measures to try to make that happen. And the false flag event of September 11, 2001 was absolutely instrumental in pushing forward the Zionist project.” – Kevin Barrett, Interview on Press TV, May 2019
• “The official narrative of hijacking…has been fully disproven on hundreds and hundreds of grounds. And yet, this Zionist coup d'etat on 9/11, it was a combination of Israelis and neo-conservative Americans along with hard-line right-wingers in the American military and the intelligence establishment who pulled off this coup d'etat, this Reichstag Fire in America.” – Kevin Barrett, Interview on Press TV, August 2017

Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam

The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a Black nationalist organization which has maintained a consistent record of antisemitism and bigotry since its founding in the 1930s. The NOI, led by longtime leader Louis Farrakhan, peddles numerous antisemitic stereotypes and conspiracy theories, including blaming Jews and Zionists for the 9/11 terrorist attacks by claiming that 9/11 was a false flag operation designed to help Israel and provoke a “war on Islam.” The group’s official newspaper, The Final Call, and the Nation of Islam Research Group (NOIRG) have also repeatedly published these claims over the past two decades, including in a 2016 series of interviews with prominent 9/11 conspiracy theorists Kevin Barrett, Christopher Bollyn, James Fetzer, and Richard Gage. Barrett, Bollyn, and Gage also spoke on a panel at the NOI’s 2017 Saviours’ Day conference titled “9/11 Revisited, Uncovered & Exposed,” which again blamed Jews for orchestrating the attacks. 

• “A small group of Zionists and others are involved in planning against Islamic nations. Those who plotted the 9/11 false flag operation are members of the Synagogue of Satan spoken of in the Bible and must be exposed. And my job is to expose them.” – Louis Farrakhan, Tennessee State University, April 2016
• “They needed some event that was cataclysmic, that would make the American people rise up, ready for war…they plotted a false flag operation and when a government is so rotten that they will kill innocent people to accomplish a political objective, you are not dealing with a human. You’re dealing with Satan himself, the Synagogue of Satan…Now they got into the Bush administration and on 9/11 the Twin Towers went down…George Bush, and those devils, Satans around him. They plotted 9/11. Ain’t no Muslim took control of no plane.” – Louis Farrakhan, Saviours’ Day, February 2016

Owen Benjamin

Owen Benjamin is a former actor and comedian who became an antisemitic right-wing ideologue in 2018. He promotes Holocaust denial and antisemitic claims about Jewish power and control, as well as other conspiratorial, racist, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-Asian views. Benjamin hosts daily video streams which have accumulated tens of millions of views online. He continues to circumvent social media websites’ repeated attempts to deplatform his content for policy violations. 

Benjamin has called 9/11 “mind-blowingly deceptive” and claims that the official explanation for the attacks was entirely fabricated. He implicates Jews—who he commonly refers to as “grabblers,” in reference to the stereotype that Jews are greedy and want to “grabble” up money—in this supposed conspiracy. Benjamin claims that debris found on site after the attacks were props and that observations from eyewitnesses and news anchors were scripted lines designed to deceive the American public. 

• “Steel frame buildings have existed for over a hundred years. Only three have collapsed due to fire. All three were leased by the same man and all three collapsed on the same day…The grabbler is Larry Silverstein…He couldn't help himself but to do a little grabbler lightning. He took out insurance policies on all his buildings for a terrorist attack…He couldn't help himself…” – Owen Benjamin, September 2019 

Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts is an antisemitic columnist and conspiracy theorist. He is a regular contributor to the The Unz Review. He describes 9/11 as a false flag event, claiming that Israel and the U.S. government orchestrated the attacks. Roberts similarly claims that the 2015 terror attack at the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris was a false flag operation committed by Israel to nefariously influence the French government’s policies on the Middle East—claims which he articulated in his contribution to a book of essays about the attack edited by fellow antisemite and 9/11 conspiracy theorist Kevin Barrett.

• “The neoconservatives who dominated the Cheney/Bush government identified the Arab Middle East as the enemy and said a ‘new Pearl Harbor’ was needed to provide wars to overthrow 7 countries in 5 years…To provide the ‘new Pearl Harbor,’ Cheney, the neoconservatives, and Israel orchestrated the attacks on the WTC and Pentagon…9/11 was a Deep State operation.” – Paul Craig Roberts, September 2020

Paul Miller

Better known by his screenname “GypsyCrusader,” Paul Miller is a white supremacist accelerationist who has engaged in online and offline harassment and propaganda activities. He engaged with the boogaloo movement in 2020 and became increasingly popular in extremist circles over the next year, posting videos of himself harassing women and minorities on Omegle and selling white supremacist patches to his followers. Miller has peddled antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories, including in a series of Telegram posts coinciding with the 2020 anniversary of the attacks. Miller, who had been closely tracked by ADL’s Center on Extremism, was arrested by the FBI in March 2021 on weapons charges and pleaded guilty to three federal charges in June 2021. 

• “Jews and muslims [sic] working together killed Americans 19 years ago today now they play the victim because we know the truth…voting will not remove them.” – Paul Miller, Telegram, September 2020
• Antisemitic 9/11 memes posted by Miller on Telegram in September 2020:

 

Philip Giraldi and the Council for National Interest

Philip Giraldi is an antisemite, conspiracy theorist, and former CIA employee. Giraldi, alongside fellow antisemite Alison Weir, heads the Council for the National Interest (CNI), an anti-Israel organization and analysis website. CNI frequently delves into antisemitic tropes about alleged Zionist or Israeli control over political affairs. Giraldi is also a contributor to the antisemitic online publication, The Unz Review. Giraldi has published conspiratorial articles blaming Israel for the 9/11 attacks on both the CNI and The Unz Review websites.

• “Israel, in spite of obvious involvement in 9/11, was not included in the 9/11 Commission Report despite the existence of an enormous Israeli intelligence operation freely working in the United States that was known to the FBI....Working on an intelligence operation does not necessarily imply participation in either the planning or execution of something like 9/11, but there are Israeli fingerprints all over the place, with cover companies and intelligence personnel often intersecting with locations frequented by the hijackers.” – Philp Giraldi, The Unz Review, May 2019
• “To be sure, 9/11 was a gift to Israel and it is a gift that keeps on giving. America is at war in a number of Muslim countries and its troops blanket the Middle East, to include a base in Israel dedicated to the defense of that country. It is all a result of the Global War on Terror and the GWOT started with 9/11. And just maybe it was a fire that was ignited by Israel.” – Philp Giraldi, The Unz Review, May 2019

Rick Wiles and TruNews

TruNews, founded and hosted by Rick Wiles, is a fundamentalist Christian streaming platform that features antisemitic and anti-Zionist content, and also has a long record of disseminating radical Islamophobic and anti-LGBTQ+ messages. TruNews has been suspended from YouTube and Facebook for violating the platforms’ content policies.

• “[9/11] wasn’t done by the Muslims. It was done by a wildcard, the Israeli Mossad, that’s cunning and ruthless and can carry out attacks on Americans and make it look like Arabs did it.” – Rick Wiles, TruNews, May 2019
• “We’re about to be pulled into another war in the Middle East to attack Iran, and they’re going to do it the same way that they did 9/11: There’s going to be a horrific attack and there’s going to be all this evidence that it was carried out by Iran. And then the people in America are going to be riled up to anger, to fury, to get revenge. It’s going to have to be bloodletting, it’s gonna have to be revenge. And all the while the Israeli Zionists are sitting back in their offices laughing and smiling. They worked one more time, and thousands of American soldiers are going to die on a battlefield for Zionism.” – Rick Wiles, TruNews, May 2019

Robert David Steele (note: Steele died in August 2021)

Robert David Steele is a conspiracy theorist who promotes a variety of conspiratorial views across multiple websites and platforms. An alleged marine veteran and former CIA officer, Steele shares conspiratorial content on topics such as 9/11, QAnon, 5G, COVID-19, vaccines, and the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. Steele created the nationwide “Arise USA!” tour in 2021, which also featured Richard Mack, a former Oath Keeper and founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA). During the tour, Steele and Mack promoted conspiracy theories and encouraged their audiences to take action by participating in local elections and school board meetings.

• “I believe that both Cheney, long known to be owned by the Zionist state of Israel, and Yitzhak Rabin, one of two Zionists in Dallas for JFK and soon to be Prime Minister of Israel...agreed that [9/11 would be] a heaven-sent opportunity to create the ultimate false flag terrorist event to justify a police state within the USA and an eternal global war on a fictional enemy, terrorism, abroad…The Zionists installed the controlled demolitions that assisted what I believe was clearly a directed energy controlled frequency event in the twin towers, controlled demolitions alone for WTC seven, and a massive coverup was executed….9/11 [legal] cases did not go to trial; controlled Zionist judges and prosecutors ensured that all cases were generously settled so as to avoid any threat of discovery, of demands for evidence that must be met…” -Robert David Steele, September 2020

Ron Unz and The Unz Review

Ron Unz is the founder of The Unz Review, an online publication which routinely posts antisemitic content, including Holocaust denial and other conspiracy theories. Unz has given a platform to a wide range of prominent antisemites and white supremacists, such as Kevin Barrett, E. Michael Jones, Eric Striker, and more. The Unz Review has published numerous articles which promote antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories. Unz himself has increasingly embraced hardcore antisemitism in recent years, including writing articles blaming Jews and Israel for the 9/11 attacks.

• “Who actually attacked our country [on 9/11]?.…Certainly no other nation in the world can remotely match Israel’s track-record of remarkably bold high-level assassinations and false-flag attacks, terrorist and otherwise, against other countries, even including America and its military. Furthermore, the enormous dominance of Jewish and pro-Israel elements in the American establishment media and increasingly that of many other major countries in the West has long ensured that even when the solid evidence of such attacks was discovered, very few ordinary Americans would ever hear those facts…the vast weight of the evidence clearly points in a single direction, implicating Israel and its Mossad intelligence service, with the case being overwhelmingly strong in motive, means, and opportunity.” – Ron Unz, The Unz Review, September 2018

Ryan Dawson

Ryan Dawson is an antisemitic conspiracy theorist and influential 9/11 truther. Dawson has created several popular 9/11 documentaries over the years and promotes the antisemitic claim that the 9/11 attacks were a false flag operation carried out by Israel. In a 2011 documentary about 9/11 entitled “War by Deception,” Dawson claimed that “Israeli intelligence and the Zionist cabal” were responsible for the attacks. He runs an anti neo-conservative forum called the ANC Report and has collaborated with individuals across the right-wing ideological spectrum, including white supremacist Vincent James of The Red Elephants, antisemite Adam Green of Know More News, and QAnon proponent Robert David Steele.

• “Israel was celebrating the attack…They filmed the first plane hitting. No one knew that was about to happen…It was the Israeli state…They had highlighted Doric Towers and the World Trade Center on maps and visited the location the day before 9/11…They were celebrating because they knew it was going to get blamed on Muslims and that the U.S was about to pound Iraq and all of Israel's enemies.” – Ryan Dawson, September 2020

Wardo Rants

Edward Andrew Whitley, who is known online as “Wardo Rants,” shares antisemitic, racist, and conspiratorial video content across 14 different social media platforms. He frequently utilizes the video hosting platform BitChute to share his antisemitic rants which he claims are “exposing Jewish supremacy,” with over 1200 videos and over 5.4 million views on his channel. He blames Jews and Israel for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, claiming that these groups began planning the attacks in the late 1970s.

• “Those 19 guys from Afghanistan, the Saudis, did not do it. It was an Israeli operation…Look at the cover up. The cover up is essential in a false flag operation…They lay this trail and the trail is meant to be picked up by the hapless media and investigators. And the trail leads to Mr. Muslim, the trail leads Osama bin Ladin. You see the trail leads to Saudi Arabia. The trail never leads to Israel…What I have found at every critical juncture of the creation of the idea from the ‘70s, to the preparation of the crime in the ‘80s and ‘90s, to the coverup, to the obstruction of justice — at every level of these decisions in these operations, we have either an Israeli or Zionist agent.” – Wardo Rants, August 2021

Warren Balogh and the National Justice Party

Warren Balogh is a white supremacist and founding member of the National Justice Party (NJP), a white supremacist group and self-described political party which was formed in August 2020. NJP is virulently antisemitic, blaming Jews for various ills of modern society. Balogh currently serves as the group’s Secretary. Balogh and other NJP members previously attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017. Balogh blames Jews and Israel for the 9/11 attacks.

• “There isn’t a single issue with Islam from the American perspective that is not directly born of jewish power and influence. 9/11 was an Israeli operation, and the propaganda used to justify endless middle eastern wars is given to us by the jewish run media. Muslims weren’t much of an issue before that…It always comes back to jews.” – Warren Balogh, Telegram, May 2021
• “I truly believe the Satanic Jews who sketched out the response to 9/11, including the wars, the expansion of the surveillance state, the new powers taken on by the federal government, the precedents set by so-called ‘enhanced interrogation,’ private mercenaries, assassination of American citizens and so on was put in place primarily for the purposes of eventually turning it all against White America, which they knew would someday turn against them.” – Warren Balogh, Telegram, January 2021