NEW YORK: Al-Qaeda has a message for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran: Enough with the conspiracy theories about the Sept 11 attacks.
In an article in the current issue of its English-language magazine, Inspire, the terror network lashed out at Mr Ahmadinejad over his claim that the United States government, and not Al-Qaeda, was responsible for the attacks.
The Iranian leader repeated the claim during his address to the UN General Assembly last week.
'The Iranian government has professed on the tongue of its president Ahmadinejad that it does not believe that Al-Qaeda was behind 9/11 but rather, the US government,' said the article, published under the byline Abu Suhail. 'So we may ask the question: Why would Iran ascribe to such a ridiculous belief that stands in the face of all logic and evidence?'
The article demands that Mr Ahmadinejad stop his efforts 'to discredit 9/11' with conspiracy theories, accusing him and the rest of his country's leadership of exploiting anti-American sentiment for political gain and engaging only in 'lip-service jihad'.
Labelled as opinion, the article appeared in the seventh issue of the magazine, a so-called special issue commemorating the 10th anniversary of the attacks. The magazine, a graphics-heavy production aimed at English-speaking Muslims online, takes a starkly different view of the last decade than that seen in US publications.
The cover superimposes a rendering of the World Trade Center's twin towers - one made from dollar signs, the other from ones and zeros - against a cloud-filled sky. The headline reads: 'The Greatest Special Operation of all time.'
Another article, said to have been written by terrorist leader Osama bin Laden before his death, was more characteristic of the Al-Qaeda publication, which is believed to be the work of Saudi-born American Samir Khan, who moved to Yemen in 2009. It urges readers not to let the US and its troops 'seem hard and become great in your eyes'.
NEW YORK TIMES
