[NV Greens] Fwd: Wisconsin newspaper covers David Ray Griffin!

[Paul Etxeberri]

>
>Theologian calls for response to 9/11
>By Samara Kalk Derby
>April 19, 2005
>http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/local//index.php?ntid=36617
>
>David Ray Griffin asks the tough questions about Sept. 11, contending U.S.
>officials had some knowledge of what was coming and possibly orchestrated
>the attacks.
>
>Griffin, whose book, "The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the
>Bush Administration and 9/11," came out a year ago, drew an enthusiastic
>standing ovation from the majority of the 400 or so people who packed his
>lecture Monday night at Bascom Hall.
>
>A retired Christian theologian, Griffin, 65, taught for more than 30 years
>at the Claremont School of Theology in California.
>
>His comments Monday night were directed at religious people, who he said
>need to respond to Sept. 11 - and the American empire that has ensued -
>based on the moral principles of their religious traditions.
>
>Drawing laughter from the crowd, Griffin said he had in mind principles
>like: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors' oil" and "Thou shalt not murder
>thy neighbors in order to steal their oil."
>
>While Griffin noted that his books and talks have not received attention
>from the mainstream media, C-SPAN had a cameraman at the event and plans
>to air the lecture at a future date. Madison's public access cable
>television station, WYOU-TV/Channel 4, meanwhile, will air the talk at 7
>p.m. Thursday.
>
>Americans interpret the events of Sept. 11 in one of four ways, Griffin said:
>
>• A first group accepts the official interpretation that Sept. 11 was a
>surprise attack by Islamic terrorists. It is easy for these people "to
>think of America's so-called War on Terror as a just war," Griffin said.
>
>• A second group accepts the official line but thinks Sept. 11 has been
>used opportunistically by the Bush administration to extend the American
>empire. People who hold this view often believe that America's response to
>Sept. 11, which has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, is far worse
>than the attacks themselves, he said.
>
>• A third group believes the Bush administration knew the attacks were
>coming and let them happen. It shows the government as "deliberate and
>cold-blooded," advancing its imperial designs while hypocritically
>portraying itself as promoting a "culture of life," Griffin said.
>
>Although there has been no national survey, a Zogby poll taken last year
>indicated that almost half of the residents of New York City share this
>view, he said.
>
>• A fourth group believes that the government orchestrated the attacks.
>While no poll shows how many Americans believe this, polls in Canada and
>Germany have found as many as 20 percent of those populations do, Griffin
>said.
>
>In his follow-up book, "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and
>Distortions," Griffin examines the questions that he and others in the
>"9/11 Truth Movement" charge were never examined by the federal
>government's 9/11 Commission.
>
>Evidence to support the theory that U.S. officials had at least had some
>foreknowledge of the attacks comes from David Schippers, the chief
>prosecutor for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, who reportedly
>received warnings from FBI agents about the attacks six weeks earlier,
>Griffin said.
>
>Other government officials, including Attorney General John Ashcroft,
>would not respond to the warnings, he added.
>
>There was the extraordinarily high volume of "put options" purchased in
>the three days before the attacks, Griffin said, with investors betting
>that stock in United and American Airlines - the two airlines used in the
>attacks - would go down. There were also a suspiciously high number of put
>options for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, which occupied 22 stories of the
>World Trade Center.
>
>"U.S. intelligence agencies monitor the market, partly to look for signs
>of impending attacks," Griffin said. "One wonders how information could be
>much more specific than this."
>
>Griffin then made a case that government officials planned and executed
>the attacks.
>
>For one, the United States military neglected to send fighter jets to
>intercept the hijacked planes. Such interceptions usually occur within 10
>to 20 minutes after the first signs of trouble and are routine, happening
>about 100 times a year, Griffin said.
>
>It seems implausible, he said, that the Pentagon was struck by Flight 77,
>since it is "surely the best defended building on the planet." The U.S.
>military has the best radar systems in the world and "does not miss
>anything occurring in North American airspace," he added.
>
>Griffin also made a case that the collapse of the World Trade Center
>buildings was brought on by thousands of explosives placed throughout each
>of the buildings. They went straight down, at free-fall speed, as in
>controlled demolitions, and many people in the buildings reported that
>they heard or felt explosions, he added.
>
>"High-rise steel-frame buildings have never - before or after 9/11- been
>caused to collapse by fire," he said.
>
>Sue Adams, 50, introduced herself to Griffin after the talk, calling him
>heroic. "I think some day we may really know the truth," she said, adding
>that it will likely be after the Bush administration is gone.
>
>Orion Litzau, a UW freshman studying engineering, agrees that the answers
>the government put out through the 9/11 Commission were more than a simple
>deception.
>
>"They were not only partly false but a complete, bold face lie," he said.
>"David Ray Griffin brings out interesting points about what could be the
>true story behind the 9/11 attack."
>
>Jim Goulding, 67, who teaches religious studies at Edgewood College,
>admitted at first he wondered whether Griffin was a crackpot, but instead
>found he had a "tremendous reputation as a theologian."
>
>Goulding has read both of Griffin's Sept. 11 books.
>
>"I think he makes a convincing case - well documented, well footnoted," he
>said.
>
>E-mail: skalk at madison.com
>
>__________________________________


-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand