Akbar Hashemi's Memoirs – September 14, 2001 - Continuation of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s account of the events surrounding September 11

Continuation of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s account of the events surrounding September 11.

Full Daily Note:

I stayed at home. The day was spent reading. I reviewed the news regarding the situation in America. The media censorship in the U.S. is preventing the dissemination of important new information. It was announced that a secret police center was destroyed due to the collapse of the towers, and since this center was responsible for protecting foreign dignitaries at the United Nations, the security of the U.N. has been weakened.

An eight-story building that connected the two Twin Towers of the World Trade Center was demolished to facilitate the search operations, and the surrounding buildings were also damaged and deemed uninhabitable. The U.S. Congress has approved $20 billion for repairing the damage. During a congressional session discussing the repercussions of the incident, they received a bomb threat, forcing the evacuation of Congress — a situation that has been recurring in America and other Western countries these days. Some believe that Zionists are spreading these rumors to provoke the Americans and increase pressure on Arabs and Muslims, while others view it as a psychological warfare tactic by anti-American forces.

Pressure on Muslims and Arabs in the U.S. and Western countries has increased significantly. Many are staying inside their homes. It was reported that some scholars in Kuwait have issued a fatwa allowing Muslim women to go out without wearing hijab these days to avoid drawing attention. A wave of protest against the biased American media's propaganda against Muslims is gradually rising, and more voices are opposing America’s unrestrained calls for revenge. The U.S. Secretary of State has identified the actions of [Osama] bin Laden, [leader of al-Qaeda], as the cause of the attacks and promised retaliation.

The Taliban have claimed that bin Laden is innocent and stated that if America attacks, they will defend and seek revenge. A dissident Iranian fugitive who is imprisoned in Germany has claimed that he knew about the attack in advance and tried to warn America, but they didn’t take him seriously.