9/11: al-Qaeda didn’t act alone
For their new book, 'The Eleventh Day’, Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan trawled through thousands of documents, piecing together a definitive account of the attacks.
On September 11, bereaved family members will mark the 10th anniversary of the cataclysmic terrorist attacks on American cities. They will gather around the pools of remembrance at the newly opened memorial, where the names of the 2,982 known victims who died on the day and in the earlier bombing of 1993 are engraved on parapets of bronze. President Obama and his predecessor, George W Bush will be on hand.
In the months that followed, President Bush and Vice President Cheney – especially Cheney – insinuated publicly that Iraq had been involved in 9/11. Polls showed that by 2003, when the US invaded Iraq, millions of Americans had come to believe that was the case. The US 9/11 Commission, however, would conclude that Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks.
Rumsfeld's other suspects after 9/11 had included Libya, Sudan and Iran, all countries associated with terrorism. No evidence was to emerge pointing to Libya or Sudan, though bin Laden was long based in Khartoum. Iran is another story.
The Iran connection is spelled out in a document filed by American attorneys working on a civil action known as the Havlish case. Fiona Havlish is the widow of an insurance consultant working for AON, the reinsurance giant, who died on 9/11 at the World Trade Center. She and six other bereaved relatives – including the widow of one of the airliners' pilots – joined Iran to a suit brought against bin Laden and al-Qaeda.