A prominent Jewish group is criticizing the United Nations for inviting a 9/11 Truther who has accused Israel of committing acts of terrorism to address an upcoming conference.
Annie Machon, a former British intelligence officer who has said the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were "an inside job" in order to spur war in the Middle East, is scheduled to address a June 6 briefing jointly organized by the U.N. Department of Public Information Non-Governmental Relations (DPI-NGO) and the Swiss government’s permanent U.N. mission.
The briefing, "Determined to Save Succeeding Generations from the Scourge of War," will be held at the U.N. headquarters in New York.
Machon’s presence at the briefing prompted Jewish humanitarian organization B’nai B’rith International (BBI) to condemn her conspiratorial views.
"It is unimaginably inappropriate for Machon to be speaking at U.N. headquarters given her worldview," BBI president Allan J. Jacobs said in a statement. "To blame 9/11 on a massive conspiracy is vile and outrageously disrespectful to the victims of the attacks in the city she’s speaking in."
The group petitioned U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Swiss Ambassador to the U.N. Paul Seger about her conspiracist and anti-Israel statements.
"We are writing to express our outrage over the choice of Ms. Annie Machon as a panelist," BBI wrote last week to Ki-Moon and Seger, according to a copy of its letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
"In videos easily accessible and widely viewed on YouTube, she espouses the view that 9/11 was, ‘an inside job designed as a pretext for war,’" BBI wrote in their letter. "In another video, she claims that the Israeli Mossad security agency carried out a 1994 bombing at the Israeli Embassy in London to shatter support for Palestinians in the United Kingdom."
"Given Ms. Machon’s oft-stated views on the September 11th terrorist attacks, we think it is highly inappropriate and insensitive to the local community in U.N. headquarters’ host city that she was invited to speak from a U.N. platform," the letter stated. "Spreading lies about states that fall victim to terrorist attacks does not move us closer to the shared goal of saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war. It only serves to blame the victims for their own suffering."
BBI has yet to receive a response.
Machon left the British intelligence service MI-5 and began claiming the U.S. government perpetrated the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Machon is interviewed at length in a YouTube video titled "9/11 was an inside job."
"I feature primarily in the 9/11 Truth movement," Machon tells an interviewer in 2007. "I’m one of the national activists. I think it’s very important to get the message out as quickly as possible."
"There is a lot of evidence, scientific, eyewitness, all sorts of different types of evidence coming out that proves it’s a lie," Machon said.
She said the attacks were "designed as a pretext for war and designed as a pretext to erode our freedom."
Machon also claimed the United States captured a group of "dancing Israelis" after the 9/11 attacks.
"Of course other spy rings have been caught in the United States in the last decade," Machon said in a 2010 interview with RT, Russia’s Kremlin-funded propaganda network. "Most notably, the so-called ‘dancing Israelis,’ who were arrested shortly after 9/11. They were seen celebrating the collapse of the Twin Towers."
The "dancing Israelis" conspiracy theory was debunked soon after the attacks more than a decade ago.
Critics say Machon will deliver a conspiratorial and anti-Israel message when she addresses the U.N. panel about the perils of war.
"If it wasn’t bad enough that her views are being given legitimacy, that the event is taking place at U.N. headquarters [in New York City] is something that needs to be quickly addressed," said David J. Michaels, BBI’s director of U.N. and intercommunal affairs.
Michaels noted the United Nations has a history of anti-Israel bias and events such as this occur too often.
"We see the diversion of this organization far away from where it’s supposed to be," Michaels said. "There are too many actors, whether NGOs or so-called experts and even bureaucrats, who allow the organization to go astray."
"To see its credibility further eroded by the hosting of an event with a person like [Machon]… is a tragedy," he said.
The U.N. DPI-NGO and the Swiss delegation did not respond to a Free Beacon request for comment.