The 9/11 Attacks: Russia, Germany, Israel Hypothesis – https://thenewsandtimes.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-missing-links-operation-911-russia.html – Summarize and comment
The blog post “The 9/11 Attacks: Russia, Germany, Israel Hypothesis” (subtitled “The Missing Links: Operation 9/11”) was published on The News And Times by blogger Michael Novakhov (Mike Nova). The post combines personal commentary, social media feeds, and search queries/AI responses to construct an alternative counterintelligence theory regarding the September 11 attacks.
Below is an overview summarizing the core claims of the post, followed by a critical analysis of its arguments.
Summary of the Post
The post argues that the official narrative of the 9/11 attacks overlooks foreign state sponsorship, asserting that non-state actors like Al-Qaeda were merely “foot soldiers” rather than the true architects.
Key elements of Novakhov’s hypothesis include:
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Vladimir Putin as the Alleged “Mastermind”:
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The author claims that the central oversight of Western intelligence was failing to understand Vladimir Putin’s covert motivations.
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The hypothesis argues that Russia orchestrated or enabled the attacks to halt the post-Soviet geopolitical decline, distract the United States, and force Washington to align with Moscow’s framing of Islamic insurgencies (specifically in Chechnya).
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Germany and Allegations of “State Support”:
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Israel and Advance-Knowledge Claims:
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Rejection of Official Findings:
Critical Commentary
1. Conflation of Geopolitical Aftermath with Causation (Cui Bono Fallacy)
The central weakness of the hypothesis is the assumption that because certain nations gained strategic room to maneuver after September 11, they must have orchestrated it:
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Russia: Vladimir Putin was indeed the first foreign leader to call President George W. Bush after the attacks, and Moscow leveraged the “Global War on Terror” to blunt Western criticism of its brutal military campaign in Chechnya. However, retroactively benefiting from a shift in U.S. foreign policy does not constitute evidence of operational planning or execution.
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Israel: While the U.S. post-9/11 posture shifted heavily toward confronting Middle Eastern militancy, claims of Israeli foreknowledge or complicity have been extensively scrutinized and refuted across public and classified investigations, frequently stemming from unverified rumors (such as the “dancing Israelis” myth).
2. Misinterpreting Intelligence Oversight as Active Complicity
The author points to the smooth operation of the Hamburg Cell in Germany as proof of state complicity. Historically, this misdiagnoses bureaucratic failure:
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Investigations by the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), the FBI’s PENTTBOM task force, and the 9/11 Commission documented that the Hamburg Cell operated successfully through strict operational security, exploitation of student visa loopholes, and gaps in cross-border intelligence sharing.
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Concluding that operational success by a terrorist cell requires covert state backing ignores the documented systemic intelligence stovepiping that existed between agencies like the CIA, FBI, and European intelligence prior to 2001.
3. Total Absence of Forensic & Documentary Evidence
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The planning, funding, and execution of 9/11 have been mapped down to bank transfers, intercepted communications, travel manifests, and internal Al-Qaeda documents recovered in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) was identified as the operational mastermind who brought the concept to Osama bin Laden in 1996. Novakhov’s assertion that Vladimir Putin was the “true mastermind” lacks any supporting documentary record, physical trail, or defector testimony.
4. Nature of the Source
The article does not present an investigative report based on leaked archives or primary documents. Instead, it is an aggregation of provocative prompts, search query logs, and rhetorical questions. It belongs to the broader genre of speculative “LIHOP” (Let It Happen On Purpose) and “MIHOP” (Made It Happen On Purpose) theories that reframe complex, asymmetric non-state attacks into the familiar paradigms of state-run espionage.