A French publisher has been forced to apologize after a history textbook admitted that the 9/11 attacks were probably “orchestrated by the CIA”.

The bombshell claim was highlighted on social media by a group of outraged schoolteachers.

The book ‘History of the 20th Century in Flash Cards‘ is aimed at undergraduate students. In the book, writer Jean-Pierre Rocher, a teacher of history and geography and a graduate of the Sciences Po university in Paris, explains the context of the creation of al-Qaeda and the “quadruple terrorist attack of 11/9 2001 on New York and Washington”.

On page 204 he states:

“This global event – no doubt orchestrated by the CIA (secret services) to impose American influence on the Middle East? – hit the symbols of American power on its own territory.”

Although the book came out last November, it was not until the daughter of one of the school teachers bought a copy that one of them spotted the reference to the CIA and decided to demand that references to 9/11 being an inside job were scrubbed.

BBC News reports: The teacher immediately shared his concerns on a teachers’ Facebook group whose spokesman, Bruno Modica, told Le Monde “it blew up very quickly”.

“There were 122 comments; this inserted clause of his conveys a conspiracy theory you can hear in our classrooms, from some pupils’ mouths; but to find it written by a teacher and in this type of publication is unacceptable.”