For any who are interested here is my own review of Griffin's book, which I wrote up for Political Affairs. Peace!
Richard
The New Pearl Harbor:
Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11
David Ray Griffin, Northampton, MA, Olive Branch Press, 2004
Reviewed by Richard Curtis
In this small book, David Ray Griffin, a professor for the last 30 years at the Claremont School of Theology, meticulously examines the known facts of the events of 9/11. At minimum we know that four commercial airlines were hijacked. We know that two of them crashed into the two tallest of the World Trade Center buildings. We know that three WTC buildings eventually collapsed. We know that something crashed into the Pentagon. And we know that a fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
Beyond that, the rest of the facts, as near as they can be determined, are completely inconsistent with the official version of those events as put forth by the Bush Administration, and some of those facts seem to suggest its direct involvement.
Among the long list of anomalies between the official version and the known facts is the mysterious collapse of the 47-story building called WTC-7. It was not struck by an airplane and suffered no significant damage, yet on the evening of 9/11, it collapsed in a manner very similar to the collapse of the two larger buildings. More ominously the way these buildings collapsed resembled the way buildings behave when subjected to a controlled demolition, rather than the way buildings behave when ravaged by fire. Never before had a steel-framed building collapsed because of fire, but on 9/11, according to the official account, three buildings did. The details behind just these observations are voluminous and are only part of the reason why every American should read this book.
Here are a few other of the many examples from Griffin's review of the facts:
1) It is standard procedure for the Air Force to intercept airplanes that show any sign of having been hijacked, this usually takes about 10 minutes and happens an average of 100 times per year. Yet on 9/11, three of the four planes flew for a half an hour without a fighter even being sent up to investigate. And when planes were "scrambled" they went up from a base two states away and apparently flew at one-half to one-quarter their normal speed.
2) Something crashed into the Pentagon that morning and we are told it was a Boeing 757, which is a large airline. Yet the hole in the building, according to photographs taken before the façade collapsed is no more than 18 feet in diameter. Also, although only the nose of a 757 would have gone inside the building, given the depth of the penetration, no sign of an airplane is visible in the photographs. We are told that the resulting fire melted all of the metal from the plane, yet we are also told that forensic examiners were able to identify human remains, which somehow were not burned up in a fire hot enough to melt aluminum and hardened steel.
3) Flight 73 crashed in Pennsylvania after it seemed as if passengers were about to wrest control of the plane from the hijackers. We are told it crashed as a result of this struggle. Why then did debris from the plane begin falling to the ground some eight miles from the "crash" site? Why do some witnesses report having heard a missile and in-air explosion?
The above list of inconsistencies between the known facts and the Bush administration's claims about what happened represents only a tiny fraction of those discussed in the book. Griffin's presentation of the details is astounding, compelling, and incredibly disturbing. This may be the most disturbing book you ever read.
One account that could do justice to all the known facts is that the Bush Administration not only allowed the events of 9/11 to transpire, but was actively involved in facilitating those events. Griffin notes that a thorough investigation might prove otherwise, but there has been no investigation into what happened only (what this reviewer sees as) a feeble examination of alleged intelligence failures.
If the conclusion that seems most compelling from this account is true, we as a nation face a very serious problem. If the Bush administration is willing and able to kill so many Americans on American soil to pursue their extremist objectives, what else are they willing and able to do?
(Richard Curtis is a PhD candidate in Philosophy of Religion and Theology at the School of Religion at Claremont Graduate University, which is associated with the Claremont School of Theology.)
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