Ahmadinejad Calls 9/11 'Suspicious Event'

The September 11 attacks were a simple pretext to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today, expressing doubt as to the cause and death toll of the attacks. “Four or five years ago, a suspicious event occurred in New York,” he said. “A building collapsed and they said that 3,000 people had been killed, but never published their names.”

In reality, the victims’ names are public knowledge. But it was the third time in a week the Iranian president had made such remarks, though his country has condemned al-Qaeda for the attacks in the past. “I am not sure what one says about a statement like that,” said a state department spokesman. “It leaves one speechless.” (More Iran stories.)