(Ken Silva, Headline USA) It’s been mere days since Virginia-based country singer Oliver Anthony “Rich Men North of Richmond” took the internet by storm, and detractors are already looking to smear the overnight sensation—including by painting him as an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist.
“It brings me no pleasure to report that the ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ guy’s playlist is public and he thinks Jewish people are responsible for 9/11,” a Twitter account with the handle @GravitysRa1nbow posted on Monday, referencing Oliver’s YouTube channel.
The channel links to multiple videos that question the Israeli government’s foreknowledge of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Anthony responded to the Twitter attack Tuesday by confirming that the YouTube channel is his.
“That’s fascinating, but what about the chip video?” he said, apparently referencing another video on his YouTube channel, this one of a potato chip spinning to the song “Funkytown” for more than an hour.
That's fascinating, but what about the chip video?
— Oliver Anthony (@AintGottaDollar) August 15, 2023
The attack on Anthony seemingly backfired, as dozens of 9/11 researchers rushed to his defense.
The researchers noted that the 9/11 videos Anthony has on his YouTube channel are derived from legitimate news sources.
For instance, one of the videos shared by Anthony is a series of Fox News reports from late 2001 about an intelligence operation the Israelis were operating on American soil in the months before 9/11.
“A handful of active Israeli military personnel were detained in the wake of 9/11, some of which failed polygraph tests when asked about surveillance activities in the U.S.,” the Fox News report by former correspondent Carl Cameron said in its opening.
“There is no indication the Israelis were involved in the 9/11 attacks, but investigators suspect that the Israelis may have gathered intelligence about the attacks in advance and didn’t share it,” it said.
Another video shared by Anthony features an interview with Richard Gage, the president of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth.
In the interview, Gage talks about how World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein took insurance policies out on his buildings months before they were attacked.
Yet another video posted by Oliver investigated the “dancing Israelis”—the five Israeli men seen photographing themselves and seemingly celebrating near the World Trade Center buildings as they were still ablaze on Sept. 11, 2001.
All told, none of Anthony’s videos contain anti-Semitic theories about 9/11—though they do raise legitimate questions about the Israeli government’s involvement in the attack.
Israel aside, new information about possible CIA and Saudi Arabian involvement in 9/11 has recently come to the forefront.
In March, veteran national security reporter Seth Hettena published a government document citing two unnamed FBI agents who allegedly said that the CIA was monitoring and attempting to recruit two of the 9/11 hijackers in the lead-up to the attack.
Anthony isn’t the only rising star in the conservative movement to question the official 9/11 narrative. GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy recently came under fire for doubting the 9/11 Commission’s findings.
“What I’ve seen in the last several years is we have to be skeptical of what the government does tell us. I haven’t seen evidence to the contrary, but do I believe everything the government told us about it? Absolutely not,” Ramaswamy said in an interview aired earlier this month. “Do I believe the 9/11 commission? Absolutely not.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
