Right-wing writer Bill Fawell, a congressional nominee in Illinois who has received support from several Republican groups, has repeatedly claimed that Israel helped carry out 9/11.

Fawell is a real estate broker and author who has frequently posted right-wing commentaries online. He ran unopposed in the March 20 Illinois GOP primary to represent District 17 in the U.S. House of Representatives and is now challenging incumbent Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos.

Media Matters previously examined Fawell’s main Facebook page and found that he pushed conspiracy theories about mass shootings in Newtown, CT; Orlando, FL; San Bernardino, CA; and Aurora, CO. He also claimed that there’s “nothing fake about Pizzagate” and said late Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was assassinated for “giving 44,000 DNC emails to Wikileaks.”

Several local Republican Party organizations have suggested people vote for Fawell. The Rock Island County Republican Party, for instance, has repeatedly pushed his candidacy on Facebook and chair Drue Mielke told The Dispatch/The Rock Island Argus in July, “We support Fawell.”

CNN's Nathan McDermott and Andrew Kaczynski reported in May that Fawell previously “pushed a conspiracy theory that 7 World Trade Center collapsed as part of a controlled demolition and the attacks were a plot to destroy documents.” CNN also wrote that Fawell “said Beyonce had ties to the Illuminati.” CNN asked the state party at the time for comment but did not receive a response.

Media Matters found in a new review of Fawell's writings that he claimed “9/11's masterminds” were “our CIA and Israel's Mossad”; 9/11 was an “obvious false flag attack whose work was farmed out to Israel’s Mossad by elements high up in our government"; and if “there is another” 9/11-type attack, “you can bet … they’ll [the CIA and Mossad] have made it too.”

The Israel-9/11 claim has been a popular conspiracy theory among anti-Semitic media figures. Anti-semite John Fitzgerald, a Republican congressional nominee in California, has also claimed that Israel was involved in the 9/11 attacks.

A Media Matters request for comment to the Illinois Republican Party and its chair, Tim Schneider, was not returned. (Update: Republican Party officials in Illinois have withdrawn their support for Fawell.) 

Here are four posts from Fawell in which he connected Israel to the 9/11 attacks.

[8/22/17]

[1/30/17]

[4/26/16]

[4/21/16]