The Governor of Wisconsin, Jim Doyle, and his GOP rival, Mark Green, both want to fire a controversial instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for holding views about 9/11 they don’t like. Kevin Barrett, a member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, is discussing 9/11 and its impact on relations between the US and Islam in a course on Islam he is offering this semester.
“ They want to fire a university teacher for presenting facts, many of which are readily available on that web site—facts that they dispute, yet have no idea what those facts are—and are unwilling to look at them to find out what they are, which ”
Barrett has now inflamed political passions by drawing comparisons between Adolf Hitler and George W. Bush in a forthcoming essay. “Like Bush and the neocons, Hitler and the Nazis inaugurated their new era by destroying an architectural monument and blaming its destruction on their designated enemies,” he writes, where the Twin Towers played a role parallel to that of the German Reichstag.
“That may sound like an exaggeration if you have never studied what happened on 9/11,” observed James Fetzer, the founder of the scholars’ society, “but what we have discovered lends considerable weight to the parallel. The Twin Towers, for example, were brought down by special kinds of controlled demolition, not by the impact of the planes, the jet-fuel based fires, or any kind of pancake collapse.”
According to Fetzer, the buildings were designed to withstand the impact of similar large commercial airliners, the jet-fuel-based fires burned too low and too briefly to even weaken, much less melt, the steel, and no “pancaking” occurred. “Indeed, the buildings were being blown apart from the top down. Steel beams were being blown outward and even upward. The buildings were destroyed in 10 and 9 seconds, which is even faster than free fall and would have been impossible without explosives.”
“Bush himself has acknowledged that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the events of 9/11,” Fetzer added. “The Senate Intelligence Committee has released a study showing that Saddam had no ties with Osama bin Laden. And the FBI has acknowledged that it has ‘no hard evidence’ connecting Osama bin Laden to 9/11. If neither Saddam nor Osama had anything to do with 9/11,” he asked, “then who was responsible? The Bush administration has been lying to us about 9/11 from scratch.”
Comparisons between Hitler and Bush do not originate with Barrett, Fetzer said. “If you Google ‘Bush Hitler’, for example, you will get 11 million hits. Try ‘The Gallery of Bush-Hitler Allusions’ and you will find hundreds of others who have found parallels between them, including comparisons of The Patriot Act and The Enabling Act, which enabled Hitler, who had been democratically elected, to consolidate his power. And both launched wars in violation of international law and condoned the use of torture.”
Scholars for 9/11 Truth, which Fetzer founded in mid-December, is dedicated to exposing falsehoods and revealing the truth about the events of 9/11, “letting the chips fall where they may.” Its members include physicists, mechanical engineers, civil engineers, structural engineers, aeronautical engineers, and pilots, as well as many with backgrounds in the social sciences and the humanities. Fetzer himself has a Ph.D. in the history and philosophy of science and has published 27 books.
“The situation is even more bizarre because these politicians don’t know why Kevin holds these beliefs and refuse to look at the evidence, even though it is abundant and easily accessible.” He offered Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) and Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford), members of the state legislature, as prime examples. Nass has even tried to pass legislation to have Barrett fired, but was unable to round up enough votes. “Kevin can be provocative, but that doesn’t make him wrong,” Fetzer said.
Bill Douglas, an expert on parenting fascinated by the controversy, after discovering that about 1/3 of the American people doubt the official account, recently contacted Nass’s office to ask if anyone there had reviewed the studies of 9/11 presented on the Scholars’ web site at st911.org, only to be told that was something they would certainly not do, because anyone who holds views like that must be a “Bush hater.”
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Douglas was dumbfounded by their response. “They want to fire a university teacher for presenting facts, many of which are readily available on that web site—facts that they dispute, yet have no idea what those facts are—and are unwilling to look at them to find out what they are, which is insane. This kind of delusional paranoia by elected officials is of particular concern.” Indeed, this degree of detachment from reality raises serious questions about their competence for public office, he said.
“Suder’s case,” Fetzer added, “is even more outrageous. He claims that conspiracy theories are incapable of scientific study. This means he has never visited our site. He has never read any of the peer-reviewed articles we have archived there. He doesn’t understand that our objective is to take rumor and speculation out of the case and place it on an objective and scientific foundation. After 35 years teaching logic, critical thinking, and scientific reasoning, it’s safe to say I know the difference.”
“Suder even claims that Barrett’s forthcoming book, ‘9/11 and the American Empire: Muslims, Jews and Christians Speak Out,’ is anti-Semitic, ostensibly on the ground it includes harsh criticism of the nation of Israel,” Fetzer said. “Not only does his book include several essays by noted Jewish scholars but criticism of Israel only qualifies as ‘anti-Semitism’ if it is confused with prejudice against persons who happen to be Jewish. Criticism of Israel, of its government or of its policies is not anti-Semitism.”
“Anti-Semitism is morally objectionable. False allegations like this one deserve to be scorned. These politicians don’t care about the truth but appear to be pandering for votes,” Fetzer said. The University, however, continues to express support for Kevin for encouraging his students to think about these issues from diverse perspectives. “I am proud of UW-M for standing up to political pressure and defending academic freedom, which means nothing if you are only allowed to express popular opinions.”
