Cageprisoners, Rowntree Trust and “Jews did 9/11”.

The "Jews did 9/11" lie says everything about the enduring nature and appeal of antisemitism in our modern world. It is a Big Lie that draws on a long and dangerous tradition of blaming Jews.

Usually, racism depicts its victims as primitive and inferior. This is where antisemitism is different. It depicts Jews as powerful and cunning, as if Jews are superior: rather than inferior. (Except in a moral sense that is. Antisemites always depict Jews as being morally inferior.) 

The antisemitic mindset regards itself as the little guy, bravely exposing and opposing the fiendish might of concealed Jewish power.

Humans killed the son of G-d? Blame the Jews. Plague? Blame the Jews. Lost World War One? Blame the Jews. Losing World War Two? Blame the Jews. Twin Towers destroyed, facilitating a "War on Terror" charade against the Muslim world? Blame the Jews.

Now, an antisemitic anti-Zionist variant of “The Jews did 9/11” slander is on the website of Cageprisoners. It is not the straightforward (and widely-believed) Hizbollah version, whereby 4,000 Jews were cunningly warned to throw a sickie on 9/11. Instead, it is an article claiming that 9/11 could be an insurance job involving so-called "Zionist" billionaires. (For actual detail / content see the foot of this blog post.)

This article actually draws upon two antisemitic traditions. As well as the Big Lie of blaming Jews, we have the Jewish lightning slur: a snide little phrase meaning a fire that is deliberately set so the owner can falsely claim insurance. This term (which is not in the actual Cageprisoners article) associates Jews with money and fakery, so its 'logic' is not so different to the thinking that underpins many antisemitic conspiracy theories. 

Nevertheless, Cageprisoners is nothing like as fringe as one might expect. It is a British advocacy group that is given respect by mainstream media; and has, in six years, received £300,000 in grants (including  £255,000 "core costs" in 2008-2014) from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. In 2010, it was at the centre of a controversy with Amnesty International. Cageprisoners Ltd describes itself as:

a human rights organisation (company registration no: 6397573) that exists solely to raise awareness of the plight of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other detainees held as part of the War on Terror.

Until his overdue return to Jordan, one of Cageprisoners' best known clients was the notorious Abu Qatada. CST Blog recently quoted UK legal documents citing Qatada in 1996 and 1999 advising British Muslim youth on the killing of Jews, including Jewish children. We also noted how this fact had been ignored by Victoria Brittain, on the Guardian website. For brevity, we did not say that Brittain's awful Guardian apologia for Qatada was similar to another article she did for Cageprisoners.

Blind-eyeing Qatada's alleged antisemitic incitement to murder Jewish children is bad enough, but at least it fitted a larger picture of Brittain having ignored reams of other evidence against him. Now, we have Cageprisoners running an antisemitic anti-Zionist 9/11 conspiracy article. Perhaps they think it also fits a larger picture: standing up to the power of Jewish Zionists? 

The article is by Kevin Barrett, an American who runs Truth Jihad Radio, talks of "Zio-Nazis" (here, disgracefully with United Nations Human Rights rapporteur Richard Falk), and seems determined to prove that no Muslim perpetrated 9/11.

Barrett's article comes from the website of Iranian state broadcaster Press TV, where you can find numerous grotesque antisemitic articles (ranging from Holocaust denial to Jews run global narcotics).

Barrett's article quotes heavily from another American, Christopher Bollyn, whose "islamic-intelligence" website is here (but please consider if you really wish to access it from your computer). On his site, Bollyn states:

I am currently working on the next chapter of Solving 9-11, "9-11 and the Elders of Zion."

This chapter will focus on the secret Jewish network which is behind the crimes of 9-11 -- and the cover-up -- and the illegal wars of aggression in the Middle East.

...The fact that all of the key players in the sordid 9-11 saga are Zionist Jews has already been established and proven.

What needs to be proven and clarified is how the conspirators are connected in a secret criminal cabal. This will identify the true architects – and culprits - of the crime of the century.

...This chapter will do that by identifying the secret network which connects all the key players of 9-11. By exposing the connections between the main actors it can be proven that there is a secret Zionist brotherhood to which the terror architects of 9-11 all belong.

This is a plain example of antisemitic anti-Zionism, combining “Elders of Zion” (ie The Protocols), “secret Jewish network” and“secret criminal cabal”, with “Zionist Jews”and “secret Zionist brotherhood”.

Barrett’s article, on Cageprisoners website, does not use such obvious antisemitic terms as Bollyn. Instead, it talks throughout about Zionists and their money links. It is archetypal of an antisemitic slander that is dressed up in (extreme) anti-Zionist clothing for ease of sale.

But why would it appeal to Cageprisoners?

Cageprisoners’ basic narrative is that “the war on terror" is an excuse for America and Britain to terrorise the Muslim world; and many of those accused of Jihadist terrorism are innocent proof of the evil power of the US / UK secret state.

From this worldview, it is a relatively short step to believe that the entire "war on terror" charade is founded upon a lie, perpetrated by the same secret state that now exploits it for its own malign purpose. How seductive must it then be to allege that 9/11 itself was a foundation myth, perpetrated not by Jihadists, but rather by the usual suspects? After all, if you regard it as axiomatic that Zionists and Israel are an intimate - but concealed - component of the US / UK "war on terror", then you are on the doorstep of all sorts of conspiracy tales about Jews, Zionists, Israel and the West.

Regardless of how Cageprisoners came to run Barrett’s article, if 9/11 conspiracies are to be a new part of their victimhood narrative, then they will become an actively antisemitic organisation: rather than just another 'pro-human rights' UK institution that turns two blind eyes to antisemitism because it suits them to do so.

To conclude, some actual excerpts from Barrett’s article are shown below. His final sentence is especially striking:

In order to triumph, truth and justice will have to defeat the world's wealthiest and most powerful criminal network.

Jews know what this is a reference to. Do Cageprisoners? Do they care? Do their funders and partners and co-publishers?  

Barrett / Cageprisoners:

[World Trade Center owner] Silverstein engineered his purchase of the Trade Center through fellow Zionist billionaire Lewis Eisenberg

...As Christopher Bollyn wrote in 2002:

“Silverstein and Eisenberg have both held leadership positions with the United Jewish Appeal (UJA), a billion dollar Zionist 'charity' organization. Silverstein is a former chairman of the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, Inc. This is an umbrella organization which raises hundreds of millions of dollars every year for its network of hundreds of member Zionist agencies in the United States and Israel.”

According to Ha'aretz, Silverstein is a close friend of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. They speak on the phone every weekend.

...The insurance companies have likewise neglected to mention that after doubling his insurance coverage immediately before 9/11, Silverstein re-doubled his winnings

...on the morning of 9/11, Silverstein and his daughter both failed to show up for their daily breakfast at Windows on the World restaurant atop the North Tower.

...Like Silverstein and Eisenberg, Hellerstein is a rabid Zionist with close ties to Israel. The judge's son and sister both emigrated from the US to orthodox Zionist settlements in the Occupied Territories.

Investigative journalist Christopher Bollyn writes:

“Hellerstein's son is an Israeli lawyer who emigrated to Israel in 2001 and whose law firm works for and with the Rothschild-funded Mossad company responsible for the 9-11 terror attacks.”

...Additionally, Bollyn writes, “Both Alvin Hellerstein and his son Joseph worked for the well-known Jewish law firm of Stroock, Stroock & Lavan before moving to the positions they now hold...Stroock, Stroock & Lavan played a key role in the setting up of 9-11...Stroock has a long history of representing the Rothschilds and other high-level Zionists.”

...In order to triumph, truth and justice will have to defeat the world's wealthiest and most powerful criminal network.