Tony Bennett said on Howard Stern's Sirius Radio show "we caused" the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington.

ADVERTISEMENT

About 3,000 people were killed when Muslim extremists hijacked four commercial airliners and flew two into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field after the hijackers were overcome by passengers heroically trying to prevent it from being crashed into another target where more people would have been hurt or killed.

"They flew the plane in, but we caused it," the New York Daily News quoted Bennett, 85, as telling Stern Monday night about the attacks. "Because we were bombing them and they told us to stop."

The newspaper said Bennett, a World War II veteran, made the remarks after Stern asked him how the United States should deal with the terrorists responsible for the attacks on the country a decade ago.

"But who are the terrorists?" Bennett said. "Are we the terrorists or are they the terrorists? Two wrongs don't make a right."

The singer also said President George W. Bush privately told him at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony in 2005 the war in Iraq was a mistake.

"He told me personally that night that, he said, 'I think I made a mistake,'" said Bennett.

"To start a war in Iraq was a tremendous, tremendous mistake internationally," the singer added.

The Daily News said Bush could not immediately be reached for comment.