"Many conspiracy theories have been propounded over the years with no conclusive proof beyond a shadow of doubt. The official line of the US has always been that it was the work of al-Qaeda," Shah said.
He said the credibility of the official investigation has been `questioned by millions of citizens in the United States and abroad, including victim family members, expert witnesses and international legal experts`.
In an interview with IRNA, the Pakistani journalist also argued that there was ?no such thing as al-Qaeda as an organised institution, having no hierarchical set-up or kingship and no headquarters, offices, or a command and control structure.
"Al-Qaeda is a delusional mythology permeated by the West to justify its wars of terror and occupation of one kind or another," he said.
Furthermore, he said the West has used "the misleading phrase `war on terror`, but that the term has now 'outlived its purpose, is worn out, and lost its novelty and no longer fit for political objectives."
Most conspiracy theories about 9/11 refer to the likely involvement of US and Israeli intelligence services if not government elements, and is borne out by architects arguing the vertical collapse of the Twin Towers must have been caused by ground explosives.
Shah recounted that following 9/11, mistakes that had been committed by former US president George W. Bush are being repeated by his successor Barack Obama.
"The Guantanamo concentration camp, which Barrack Obama promised to close down before he became president, is still operating in the same inhumane way as it ever was.
"This year another batch of thousands of Afghans and Pakistanis, and now the Libyans, have been killed by Nato drone bombings. Relations between the West and the Muslim world are at a very low ebb, if not deteriorated," he said.
"In nutshell nothing is altered to change the course of history. No lessons have been learnt and hardly anything has been achieved in order to bring about peace to the world during the past decade," he told IRNA.
The London-based journalist referred to Afghanistan suffering the worst fate. "More than a million innocent civilians, who had nothing to do with 9/11, perished through a persistent barrage of carpet bombings of Kabul and surrounding areas."
But he said that no one in the West even mentions these "horrible atrocities and crimes against humanity" and questioned what is meant by terrorism.
"How do you define terrorism? What is the difference between drone bombings from afar in the sky and killing wholesale civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and now in Libya, and the odd individuals who commit suicide and murder," he said.
Another consequence of 9/11 were the mass arrests and jailing of Muslims in western countries on mere suspicion without often charge or trial in what Shah described as a series of "draconian laws."
"A number of counter-terrorism laws have been instituted, but these have dismally failed to achieve anything and are counter-productive," he said.
Overall, the journalist believed that it looked like a "clash of civilizations" in what were essentially unnecessary and unwinnable imperialist wars.
"The battle that needs to be won, in all conflicts, is that of the hearts and minds," he said, suggesting peace can only be achieved at the negotiation table rather than seeking to impose unacceptable foreign political ideology on countries.
"The alternative is that the Afghan war will end as Vietnam war ended: humiliation for a superpower. The US and Nato armies have no choice but to leave Afghanistan to the Afghans, whether they call themselves Taleban or not," Shah said.
IRNA-OANA
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
