The United States and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned remarks by UN human rights expert Richard Falk about “awkward gaps and contradictions in the official explanations” of the 9/11 terror attacks. The US ambassador to the United Nations also demanded that Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, be sacked over the comments on his blog.
“What fuels suspicions of conspiracy is the reluctance to address the sort of awkward gaps and contradictions in the official explanations,” given by conspiracy theorists like David Ray Griffin, Falk said in a recent blog post. “What may be more distressing than the apparent cover up is the eerie silence of the mainstream media, unwilling to acknowledge the well-evidenced doubts about the official version of the events: an al Qaeda operation with no foreknowledge by government officials.”
US Ambassador to United Nations, Susan Rice, condemned Falk’s accusations as “noxious.”
“Mr. Falk endorses the slurs of conspiracy theorists who allege that the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were perpetrated and then covered up by the US government and media,” she said in a statement. “Mr. Falk’s comments are despicable and deeply offensive, and I condemn them in the strongest terms. I have registered a strong protest with the UN on behalf of the United States.”
The U.S. has made past criticisms about Falk’s “one-sided and politicized approach to his work for the UN,” Rice added, “including his failure to condemn deliberate human rights abuses by Hamas, but these blog comments are in another category altogether.”
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also rejected Falk’s comments. “I want to tell you clearly and directly. I condemn this sort of inflammatory rhetoric. It is preposterous — an affront to the memory of the more than 3,000 people who died in that tragic attack,” he said. Despite his official condemnation, Ban is unable to remove Falk from his position because he was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council.