(JTA) — Jeremy Corbyn, the newly elected leader of Britain’s Labor Party who has been accused of being anti-Israel, has said that Osama Bin Laden was framed for 9/11.

Corbyn claimed in a 2003 article for the London-based Morning Star newspaper, a Socialist publication, that 9/11 was “manipulated” by the United States and Britain to make it look like Osama Bin Laden was responsible in order to allow the West to go to war in Afghanistan, the British daily newspaper The Telegraph reported over the weekend.

“Historians will study with interest the news manipulation of the past 18 months,” Corbyn wrote in 2003 in the Morning Star. “After September 11, the claims that bin Laden and al-Qaida had committed the atrocity were quickly and loudly made. This was turned into an attack on the Taliban and then, subtly, into regime change in Afghanistan.”

Corbyn was criticized in the days before winning the Labor leadership on Sept. 12, after calling saying it was a “tragedy” that  Bin Laden was killed before he could be put on trial for the 9/11 attacks.

He has called Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah “friends,” and recently defended an Anglican minister who posted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories online. Corbyn also has publicly endorsed a blanket arms embargo on Israel and the boycott of Israeli universities involved in weapons research.

The publication of Corbyn’s comments comes as Britain’s Labor Party opens its annual conference. The conference is set to begin Sunday and run through Sept. 30.

A number of Labor Party lawmakers are expected to use the conference to publicly state that the party is unelectable under Corbyn, according to the Telegraph.

Corbyn succeeded Ed Miliband, who is Jewish, as the opposition party’s leader. Miliband stepped down in May after losing the general election by a wide margin to David Cameron of the Conservative Party.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.