Juan Cole, a "professor of history", makes stuff up relating to the 9/11 Commission Report.

Straw seems unaware that according to the September 11 Commission report, al-Qaeda conceived 9/11 in some large part as a punishment on the US for supporting Ariel Sharon's iron fist policies toward the Palestinians. Bin Laden had wanted to move the operation up in response to Sharon's threatening visit to the Temple Mount, and again in response to the Israeli attack on the Jenin refugee camp, which left 4,000 persons homeless.

The Israeli operation in Jenin happened in April 2002 which makes it a little difficult for it to have been a potential trigger event for 9/11. Much more detailed criticism here.

In looking into this I found a great site where you can do a search through the 9/11 Report here.

I understand Cole may have cleaned up his comments with a pretty lame excuse. See here for more.