Nov. 3, 2010 (Press TV) -- Renowned Jewish-American scholar Noam Chomsky says the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan was "criminal" since there is no evidence al-Qaeda carried out the 9/11 attacks.
"All of this was totally illegal. It was more, criminal," Chomsky told Press TV's program a Simple Question.
"The explicit and declared motive of the [Afghanistan] war was to compel the Taliban to turn over to the United States, the people who they accused of having been involved in World Trade Center and Pentagon terrorist acts," the 81-year-old academic said. "The Taliban ... requested evidence ... and the Bush administration refused to provide any."
"We later discovered one of the reasons why they did not bring evidence: they did not have any," Chomsky said.
The political analyst also said the non-existence of such evidence was confirmed by FBI eight months later.
"The head of the FBI, after the most intense international investigation in history, informed the press that the FBI believed that the plot may have been hatched in Afghanistan, but was probably implemented in the United Arab Emirates and Germany," he said.
Chomsky added that three weeks into the war, "A British officer announced that the United States and Britain would continue bombing until the people of Afghanistan overthrew the Taliban.... That was later turned into the official justification for the war."
The 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan was launched with the official objective of curbing militancy and bringing peace and stability to the country.
Nine years on, however, the American and Afghan officials admit that the country remains unstable and civilians continue to pay the heaviest price.
LINK: Information Clearing House
