On Anniversary, Iran's Ahmadinejad Says U.S. Planned 9/11 Attacks
Iranian president claims 9/11 attacks were just a pretext for Middle East war.
Sept. 11, 2011 — -- As thousands of Americans gather across the country for tearful ceremonies to remember the nearly 3,000 killed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks ten years ago today, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad marked the anniversary by repeating the conspiracy theory that the attacks were orchestrated by the U.S. as a pretext for war.
"The September 11 [attacks] were actually a planned game to provoke the human community's sentiments and find an excuse for launching attack on Muslim regions and occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, which led to the massacre of one million innocent people," Ahmadinejad said today according to Iranian press reports.
WATCH: ABC News Live Coverage of 9/11, Ten Years Later
Ahmadinejad also said the U.S. and its allies attempt to wage war in different parts of the world in an attempt to increase the sale of small arms.
Ahmadinejad -- and several others -- have made the conspiracy theory claim previously. Last year, the Iranian president asked the U.N. General Assembly to form an independent fact-finding group to investigate the 9/11 attacks.
Iran's Fars News Agency paraphrased previous remarks by a senior Iranian foreign ministry official in a report today as saying the 9/11 attacks were a plot by neo-conservatives in Washington, D.C., to victimize "thousands of Americans in a bid to attain an array of large-scale goals, including finding control over the world nations and their wealth."
Despite a painstaking, years-long investigation by the 9/11 Commission which found the attacks were the work of the al Qaeda terrorist organization, conspiracy theories about what actually happened on Sept. 11, 2001, survive. Those who doubt the official account, known by some as "9/11 Truthers", allege the twin towers were actually brought down by controlled demolitions and the Pentagon was hit by a cruise missile, rather than an airplane.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told ABC News that anyone positing such conspiracy theories "trivializes" the "most tragic event to affect the United States."
"People making these claims are disgraceful, and they should be ashamed of themselves," King said Friday.
ABC News' Joel Siegel contributed to this report.
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