Texan Lutheran Pastor to Iranian TV: Israel Was Chief Player in 9/11

TEL AVIV – A Lutheran pastor and former U.S. Senate candidate told Iranian TV that Israel was “the chief player” in the September 11 attacks on the U.S.

Mark Dankof, who is also a broadcaster in San Antonio, Texas, was commenting on a report that Saudi Arabia played a supporting role in the 9/11 attacks.

“When we get to 9/11, there are series of clues and series of explanations that have been provided for us; they really get in the bottom of the fact that it was Israel that was the chief player in calling up 9/11,” said Dankof in a phone interview with Press TV on Saturday.

Evidence of Israel’s role, according to Dankof, is spelled out in a book called Israel Did It and in an article published by the Council of Foreign Affairs in 1998 that explains Israel’s motivations for being the “driving force” behind an attack of such proportions.

A New York Times report on Friday, citing U.S. officials and congressional aides, said the Obama administration has been lobbying Congress to block legislation allowing American courts to hold Saudi authorities responsible for any role in the attacks. Such legislation would include the right to freeze Saudi assets in the U.S.

The victims’ families, according to the report, accuse the current and former administrations of covering up Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the attacks in order to “protect U.S.-Saudi relations.”

Dankof, however, said, “When you look at this entire situation, the United States government is interested in trying out the 9/11 event in terms of propaganda purposes.”

He argued that Washington is “more than happy to allow these families to appeared [sic] official events that might support the government propaganda line of who and what was behind 9/11.”

“The American people will continue to have a complete misunderstanding of who the real enemies are or why we are likely to be in a war after the American 2016 elections,” he concluded.

Dankof also accused the U.S. government of covering up its involvement in the Kennedy assassination.