(JTA) — Jeremy Corbyn, the newly elected leader of Britain’s Labor Party, claimed more than a decade ago that Osama bin Laden was framed for 9/11.
Corbyn wrote in a 2003 article for the London-based Morning Star newspaper that the United States and Britain made it look like bin Laden, the head of al-Qaida, was responsible for the attacks in order to allow the West to go to war in Afghanistan, the British daily newspaper The Telegraph reported over the weekend.
“Historians will study with interest the news manipulation of the past 18 months,” Corbyn wrote in 2003 in the Morning Star, a Socialist publication. “After September 11, the claims that bin Laden and al-Qaida had committed the atrocity were quickly and loudly made. This was turned into an attack on the Taliban and then, subtly, into regime change in Afghanistan.”
Corbyn, who has been accused of being anti-Israel, was criticized in the days before winning the Labor leadership on Sept. 12 after saying it was a “tragedy” that bin Laden was killed before he could be put on trial for the 9/11 attacks.
He has called Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah “friends,” and recently defended an Anglican minister who posted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories online. Corbyn also has publicly endorsed a blanket arms embargo on Israel and the boycott of Israeli universities involved in weapons research.
The publication of Corbyn’s comments came as the Labor Party was preparing for its annual conference, which runs Sunday to Wednesday. A number of Labor Party lawmakers are expected to use the conference to publicly state that the party is unelectable under Corbyn, according to the Telegraph.
Corbyn succeeded Ed Miliband, who is Jewish, as the opposition party’s leader.
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