Interview by Kourosh Ziabari

Wayne Madsen is an American investigative journalist and columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the political blog "Wayne Madsen Report". He has appeared on ABC News, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, BBC, Al-Jezeera, MSNBC and Press TV. Madsen has written the introduction to the book "Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy, Saudi Arabia and the Failed Search for bin Laden". Madsen's articles have appeared on a number of news websites and magazines including Global Research, Pacific Free Press, Online Journal, Counter Punch, The American Conservative, Tehran Times and In These Times.

Madsen has more than 20 years of experience in security affairs. As a U.S. Naval Officer, he managed one of the first computer security programs for the U.S. Navy. He has also worked for the NSA National Security Agency, the Naval Data Automation Command, Department of State, RCA Corporation, and Computer Sciences Corporation.

Madsen joined me in an exclusive interview and answered my questions about the 9/11 attacks, Israel's dominance over the U.S. media and the prospect of Iran-U.S. relations.

Kourosh Ziabari: There are many unanswered questions regarding the catastrophic attacks of September 11, 2001 about which you've written extensively. Several investigative journalists believe that the attacks were an inside job planned by the FBI and perpetrated by Israel or elements connected to Mossad. Former Italian President Francesco Cossiga has categorically expressed that the 9/11 attacks were a joint operation of FBI and Mossad. General Hamid Gul, the former head of Pakistan's Intelligence Service believes that Israel was behind the attacks, too. What's your estimation of these theories, their veracity and reliability? Is it demonstrable that the 9/11 attacks were a false flag operation or an inside job?

Wayne Madsen: I don't believe the attacks were planned by the FBI.  I believe they were an operation carried out by Mossad, Saudi intelligence, with which Mossad has had and continues to have a close relationship since the days of the Safari Club of western and Middle East intelligence services combining their operations, and elements of the CIA. Cossiga, Gul, parliament members in Germany, Britain, and Japan, the late British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, and others all understood this was an inside job that also involved a handful of people at the top of the Bush administration, including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, A.B.Krongard of the CIA, and Rudolph Giuliani, as well.

KZ: In 2003, you stated that you uncovered documents which reveal a relationship between the Saudi government and the S-11 hijackers. It's a complicated issue; you know, from one hand, Saudi Arabia is a strategic ally of the United States in the Persian Gulf region. From the other hand, the United States attributed the attacks to Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, which we already know rose to prominence with the indirect and direct support of the United States. At another side of the story, we find the close relationship between the House of Saud and the Bin Laden Family which is a major stakeholder in the Saudi economics. How is it possible to solve this complexity? Can we conclude that the old friends became new enemies and betrayed each other?

WM: The Sauds and the Bin Ladens were close allies of the Bush family, which had everything to gain in the 9-11 attacks. The only way to discover the Saudi role is for a Saudi whistleblower to come forward; however, that may only happen after the inevitable overthrow of the Saudi monarchy. As many Saudis know, the Sauds are not only in lockstep with the Americans and Israelis but they are descendant from a Jewish merchant family that originally lived in what is now Kuwait. Wahhabism in fact serves the interests of Israel's Zionist Judaism, both emphasize extremism and sectarianism that keeps the Middle East in constant turmoil and extends the rule of the Wahhabi Sauds and Zionists.

KZ: You know that the Iraq of Saddam Hussein era was a close ally of the United States in 1980s. The United States gave the green light to Saddam to attack Iran, and backed him strategically, militarily and financially. 20 years later, the equations changed altogether. The close ally became the villain and came under fire. The man whom the United States had equipped for waging a war against Iran was arrested and executed by the same United States. What happened that changed everything in this way?

WM: This is part of the U.S. policy. Use leaders it creates and then dispose of them. It has happened with Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam, Manuel Noriega in Panama, Trujillo in Dominican Republic, Savimbi in Angola, and the lost goes on.

KZ: Having all of what you've written regarding the 9/11 attacks in mind, there still remains a number of ambiguities concerning what happened during the week leading to September 11. One of these incidences was the unexpected declaration of martial law by John Ellis Bush, the Governor of Florida in the state before 9/11. We also know that the Israeli ZIM Shipping Company pulled out its headquarters from the World Trade Center's north tower just days before September 11. The media also divulged that 4000 Israeli employees of the WTC didn't attend their work on September 11. Are these revelations enough to conclude that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks?

WM: The entire reaction of the U.S. defense and early warning systems on 9/11 indicates involvement by high-level officials, including Jeb Bush and his brother Marvin Bush, who had financial interests in the firm that had the security contracts for the World Trade Center and Dulles International Airport. The 4000 Jews who didn't go to work was something tossed out by the Israeli disinformation machine to point to as an anti-Jewish "conspiracy theory." There were no 4000 Israelis or Jews working at the WTC who did not show up for work. This is psychological warfare operation.

KZ: Iran and the G5+1, representing five permanent members of the UNSC and Germany, are about to sit at a table for a new round of negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. Are these negotiations going to yield constructive results? What I want to ask you is that is Iran's uranium enrichment program the mere concern of the international community? Will they bring to an end their financial sanctions and military threats should Iran halts its enrichment program?

WM: No, they want the ending of the nuclear program all together. We now know that Yukia Amano was installed as head of IAEA by the U.S. and its allies to act on Washington's and Israel's behalf. This is a complete change from the past head of IAEA ElBaradei, who the neo-cons and Zionists hated.

KZ: In one of your articles, you've elaborately discussed the authorization of a covert economic war against the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez by the U.S. President Barack Obama. It had been previously reported that the ex-President Bush administration also pursued the conduction of a set of clandestine intelligence operations in Iran to destabilize the national government. You mentioned that the United States carries out its operations through subservient NGOs who work to meet the interests of Washington in a target country. How is it possible for the United States to organize such destabilizing operations? What are the objectives which the United States follows through these efforts?

WM: Most of the NGO operations are carried out by George Soros's groups and others funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Even the Peace Corps is misused, which is against the policy of President Kennedy who established the group to do good. In Iran, Soros and USAID and National Endowment for Democracy funded groups aim to cause problems with the minorities: Kurds, Ahwazis, Baluchis, Azeris, Turkmen, and others.

KZ: In the recent Wikileaks documents which were released a few days ago, it has been alleged that a number of Persian Gulf Arab countries had furtively asked the U.S. government to launch a military strike against Iran so as to avert the conceived threat of a nuclear Iran. How much credible are these documents and how do they affect the U.S. foreign relations? In what ways do these allegations benefit Israel?

WM: Most of these comments were relayed by the U.S. diplomats who have political agendas. It should be noted that some of these meetings where these comments were made were attended and reported on by American Jewish diplomats with Zionist leanings, for example, Michael Gfoeller, the US charge d'affaires in Riyadh, also Gen. David Petraeus's political aide, who attended meetings with King Abdullah.

KZ: For the final question, I want to ask you about the unconditional support which the United States offers to Israel. What has made the United States the staunchest ally of Tel Aviv? Why does the White House degrade itself to the level of the representative of Israel in the international organizations and the United Nations Security Council? Many Middle East experts believe that it is the influence of Zionist lobby over the economy of the United States which has created this immutable connection between Tel Aviv and Washington. What's your idea? How do you estimate the influence of Zionist lobby over the U.S. government?

WM: The Israeli Lobby owns the Congress, media, Hollywood, Wall Street, both political parties, and the White House. This kind of talk will get people fired by this lobby, as we have seen recently with White House correspondent Helen Thomas and CNN anchor Rick Sanchez. However, many Americans are growing tired of the arrogance of the Israel Lobby and their bigoted attitudes toward anyone who challenges their influence-peddling and their ridiculous insistence that Israel must be supported because of some ancient fairy tales involving some tribes who wandered the deserts of the Middle East and saw and heard non-existent things because of sun stroke, drinking bad water, and smoking local hallucinogenic plants.

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Kourosh Ziabari is an Iranian freelance journalist. He has interviewed political commentator and linguist Noam Chomsky, member of New Zealand parliament Keith Locke, Australian politician Ian Cohen, member of German Parliament Ruprecht Polenz, former Mexican President Vicente Fox, former U.S. National Security Council advisor Peter D. Feaver, Nobel Prize laureate in Physics Wolfgang Ketterle, Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry Kurt Wüthrich, Nobel Prize laureate in biology Robin Warren, famous German political prisoner Ernst Zündel, Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff, American author Stephen Kinzer, syndicated journalist Eric Margolis, former aSiddiqiistant of the U.S. Department of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts, American-Palestinian journalist Ramzy Baroud, former President of the American Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Sid Ganis, American international relations scholar Stephen Zunes, American singer and songwriter David Rovics, American political scientist and anthropologist William Beeman, British journalist Andy Worthington, Australian author and blogger Antony Loewenstein, Iranian geopolitics expert Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh, American historian and author Michael A. Hoffman II and Israeli musician Gilad Atzmon.