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I was listening to a podcast by Jordan Klepper in which a conspiracy theory researcher is interviewed, and explains that Alex Jones was responsible for a lot of the 9/11 conspiracy theories as he reported on Infowars in July 2001 that the US was under threat of a terrorist attack, which supposedly would be attributed to Osama Bin Laden (reference to the moment in the podcast: https://pca.st/episode/da8e6dd0-1209-458b-a417-13774cab2f93?t=447.0).

The source being an entertainment podcast does not have a lot of legitimacy, however I find multiple articles online mentioning this factoid, from sources that whereas not authoritative (slate for instance) would typically be hostile to Alex Jones.

So two questions emerge:

  1. Did Alex Jones truly talk in infowars in July of 2001 of the possibility of a terrorist attack whilst mentioning specifically the name of Osama Bin Laden? This claim sounds ridiculous to me.
  2. If he did not, how did this myth start? I’m surprised that this is conveyed by democrat-leaning sources.
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    I'm not sure why it would be so ridiculous to mention Osama bin Laden and terrorism prior to 2001. The US made attempts to kill/capture bin Laden for terrorism multiple times in recent years as of that time. He had attacked US embassies in 1998 and Clinton hit Afghanistan with a few dozen cruise missiles in response.
    – Bryan Krause
    Nov 28, 2022 at 15:36
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    Rereading the question and the title suggests that Bin Laden would have done the attack while the body suggests that he would blamed for the attack. Which of those two questions are you meaning to ask?
    – Joe W
    Nov 28, 2022 at 16:07
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    I suspect that the right way to ask this and also to put it in the correct context would be to ask how often Jones predicted imminent terrorist attacks (or even attacks by Bin Laden) over a long period. And how many of the predictions coincided with actual attacks.
    – matt_black
    Nov 29, 2022 at 16:24
  • What I am more interested in confirming is whether Alex Jones did mention specifically Bin Laden in July 2001, regardless of the rationale he puts around it. The reasons for my doubts are that although Bin Laden was somewhat known by the public before 9/11 he was not a big part of the media conversation of July 2001. What surprised me is the level of detail given about the prediction (it discussed a terrorist attack, in July 2001, mentioning Bin Laden), while I cannot find a video of this, nor evidence that Alex Jones himself has bragged about this prediction.
    – Abel
    Nov 29, 2022 at 22:16
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    @Abel The reason why is is not a useful question is that–even if Jones did make this specific claim–it doesn't tell us much. He makes similar claims frequently and has done for years. Most prove unfounded so he could easily have got a single claim right purely by coincidence. Only by comparing all his claims with actual events can anything meaningful be concluded.
    – matt_black
    Nov 30, 2022 at 9:46

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That isn't the only source of that claim and from what I can see Alex Jones has been doing conspiracy theories before September 11th.

Where Did 9/11 Conspiracies Come From?

On July, 25 2001 he had a two and a half hour program in which he made many claims of false flag attacks from the 1993 World Trade Center attack to the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing. During this show he also says that the government "needs" Bin Laden as a boogeyman for their goals.

The 9/11 conspiracy theories predate 9/11. On July 25, 2001, in a two-and-a-half-hour broadcast of his Infowars TV program on a local public-access channel, Alex Jones laid out what he saw as the history of government-manufactured false-flag attacks, from the Gulf of Tonkin incident that Lyndon Johnson used to draw the United States deeper into the Vietnam War to the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, which Jones claimed was government-manufactured terrorism orchestrated to help Bill Clinton boost his poll numbers and suppress civil liberties. As he compared Oklahoma City to the Reichstag fire, Jones flashed the numbers for the congressional and White House switchboards onscreen. "Call the White House and tell them we know the government is planning terrorism," he said. " 'Bin Laden' "—he used air quotes—"is the boogeyman they need in this Orwellian phony system."

After the attacks he goes on the air to claim that the Bush administration took part in a staged terrorist attack.

Six weeks later, on the day the Twin Towers fell, Jones began his broadcast by declaring that, as he had predicted, the Bush administration had taken part in a staged terror attack. "I'll tell you the bottom line," Jones said. "98 percent chance this was a government-orchestrated controlled bombing."

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    So the answer is "yes and no" - he predicted a terrorist attack and mentioned bin Laden by name, but in the context of him being used as a scapegoat by the perpetrator, rather than actually being the perpetrator.
    – F1Krazy
    Nov 28, 2022 at 15:48
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    @F1Krazy I think in this case the question is unclear as it mentions that Bin Laden would do the attack in the title but would be blamed for the attack in the body. That is something I missed when I was answering the question.
    – Joe W
    Nov 28, 2022 at 16:06

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